How Much to Pay a Sushi Chef: Salary by Country and Visa Floor

Pay a sushi chef the higher of two numbers: the market rate for the role in your city, and the salary floor of the visa you will use. In most markets the floor wins. A sponsored chef in Australia needs at least A$79,423 a year, well above the award rate for cooks. In the US, where E-2 and O-1 set no salary floor, the market decides: the national median for chefs and head cooks is $62,470, the 75th percentile $78,750.

1. Market rate and visa floor, side by side

No government publishes a wage for "sushi chef". Each reports a broader chef or cook category, some as survey percentiles, some only as a legal minimum. The table names the measure in every row so you do not compare a median with a minimum. The US dollar column (ECB reference rates, 25 September 2026) only puts the markets on one scale.

Other visa floors you may meet, with no official chef wage beside them: Malaysia Employment Pass Category III, basic salary of RM5,000 a month or more (from 1 June 2026, basic pay only; Malaysia guide); Taiwan, at least NT$47,971 a month for chef work in food service (Taiwan guide); Thailand, THB 50,000 a month for Japanese nationals (Thailand guide); India, Rs 16.25 lakh a year for an employment visa (India guide). Monthly figures above are annual figures divided by 12 or hourly figures times 2,080 hours, our calculation.

2. United States: percentiles by metro

BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 35-1011 Chefs and Head Cooks: 10th percentile $37,900, 25th $48,440, median $62,470 ($30.03 an hour), 75th $78,750, 90th $98,560. Restaurant cooks (35-2014) have a median of $37,390, so the job title you file under changes the benchmark by about $25,000.

If you file H-2B or PERM, the Department of Labor sets a prevailing wage for your area instead; see US prevailing wage for chefs.

3. UK, Singapore and Australia in detail

United Kingdom. ONS ASHE 2025 provisional, SOC 5434 Chefs, full time: 25th percentile £25,894, median £30,010, 75th £36,126; the 90th percentile is suppressed. All employees: median £26,531, hourly median £14.00. The Skilled Worker going rate is £33,400 and the general threshold £41,700, but chefs are on neither shortage list, so new overseas sponsorship is effectively closed. See hiring a Japanese chef in the UK.

The chef, senior cook and cook rows above are MOM's June 2025 edition, published 30 June 2026; the restaurant manager row is still the June 2024 figure, which the newer edition has not yet let us verify line by line. The June 2025 edition codes jobs under SSOC 2024 (chef is now "Chef, excluding pastry chef"), so do not compare it with June 2024 row by row. Pass floors rise on 1 January 2027: S Pass S$3,600 to S$5,100, EP S$6,000 to S$11,500. See Singapore EP and S Pass.

Australia. Award weekly minimums from 1 July 2026 (Restaurant Industry Award): cook grade 3 A$1,119.10, grade 4 A$1,189.40, grade 5 A$1,221.10. We have not extracted an ABS survey percentile for chefs, so the award is the only figure shown. The Core Skills Income Threshold of A$79,423 must be met in money, without counting housing or other non-monetary benefits. See Australian visas for chefs.

4. Gulf states: what is and is not published

We found no official wage statistic for chefs or cooks in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman. Gulf pay is set by the market and by what you add in kind. Figures for "sushi chef salary in Dubai" come from job boards and recruiters, not official sources.

• Qatar has a legal minimum wage (Law No. 17 of 2020): QAR 1,000 basic a month, plus QAR 300 for food and QAR 500 for housing unless you provide them. It shapes pay for kitchen helpers, not for a Japanese chef.
• Saudi Arabia ties work permits to skill levels with wage thresholds, but the ministry does not publish those thresholds in riyals. Check in Qiwa which level your registered occupation produces. See hiring a Japanese chef in Saudi Arabia.
• UAE: we did not verify a salary floor that applies to a chef. Costs that are published (work permit fees by company category) are in hiring a Japanese chef in Dubai.

MAFF counted about 1,600 Japanese restaurants in the Middle East in 2025, up about 20% on 2023. With no official benchmark, record the evidence behind your number and list housing, food, flights and the end of service gratuity as separate lines.

5. Offer builder: from the data to one number

1. Pick the market anchor by role. Line cook: the cook median. Sushi or kitchen chef with several years' experience: the chefs 75th percentile. Omakase counter lead or head chef: towards the 90th. Where only a median is published (Canada, Hong Kong), use it as the lower bound and write down what else you relied on.
2. Find the visa floor for the route in the table above.
3. Take the higher of the two as base pay. Check what counts: Australia excludes non-monetary benefits, Malaysia counts basic salary only.
4. Test the next rule change. Singapore floors rise on 1 January 2027; Australia's threshold is indexed each 1 July. A salary that clears today may fail at renewal.
5. Turn base pay into employer cost with the model in budgeting an international chef hire.

6. Pay statement to send the chef

Send the base pay with its basis, in both languages. Replace the brackets.

7. What to do this week

• Decide the visa route first; it can move the number more than the market does.
• Note your city's figure with its measure and period.
• Write the offer with base pay and in-kind items on separate lines.
• Diary 1 January 2027 (Singapore) and 1 July 2027 (Australia) against the chef's renewal date.

General information, not advice on pay, tax or immigration. Figures are as published by the sources below for the periods stated. Check the primary source before you put a number in a contract or a visa application.