US Prevailing Wage for Chefs: SOC Code, Wage Level and Lookup

The prevailing wage is a government-set wage floor the Department of Labor requires before a PERM green card case or an H-2B petition can be filed. PERM uses one of four wage levels, decided by the job's duties and requirements; H-2B uses a flat metro average with no levels, and it is often higher than a PERM Level I or II figure. The 2026–27 wage year runs 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. This page covers how the number is set and how to look it up; for what the market actually pays, see sushi chef salary by country.

1. What the prevailing wage is

The Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) describes it this way: the wages offered to a foreign worker must be the prevailing wage rate for the occupation in the area of employment, meaning the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in that occupation and area. The aim, set by the Immigration and Nationality Act, is that hiring a foreign worker does not undercut the wages of US workers.

Three things follow: the wage is set by occupation, so whether your job is classified as a chef or a cook matters a great deal; it is set by area, usually the metro area of the worksite; and it is set by the government, not the market, so what your current staff earn does not lower it.

2. Which visa routes need one

OFLC's prevailing wage page is explicit: an H-2B application and a PERM labor certification (the first step of an EB-3 green card) may not be filed without a valid prevailing wage determination from the National Prevailing Wage Center (NPWC). For H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3, employers may request one or use other sources.

The routes restaurants most often use for Japanese chefs, E-2 and O-1, are not on that list: they are not filed with the Department of Labor, so no prevailing wage determination is part of them. See E-2 visas for Japanese restaurant staff. This guide therefore matters mainly for EB-3 sponsorship and H-2B.

3. The decision rule: SOC code and wage level

The number you end up owing is set by two choices, and both follow from how you write the job, not from what you want to pay.

Choosing the occupation code

The choice is not yours alone: the NPWC decides it from the job description you submit. A "sushi chef" whose duties are mostly line preparation, with no supervision, menu input or ordering, may be classified as a cook rather than a chef. Describe the job accurately, including supervision, menu development and ordering if they are real parts of it; our kitchen roles guide helps map Japanese titles to US occupations.

Choosing the wage level (PERM only)

For PERM, once the occupation is set, OFLC assigns one of four wage levels based on the job's requirements compared with what is normal for the occupation, roughly the 17th, 34th, 50th and 67th percentiles under the methodology in use since 2005 (DOL's own description, March 2026 proposal). What moves a chef job up a level:

Write the requirements you genuinely need for the role, and no more. Asking for more experience, a culinary degree, or special skills than is normal for the occupation pushes the job to a higher level and a higher required wage; it can also make it harder, on a PERM case, to show that no qualified US worker applied. A foreign language requirement needs a business necessity justification under the rules, not just preference.

4. How DOL calculates it: mean vs wage levels

H-2B: the mean

Under 20 CFR 655.10(b), if no collective bargaining agreement covers the job, the H-2B prevailing wage is the arithmetic mean of wages for the occupation in the area, from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data, unless the employer submits an acceptable survey. There are no skill levels: every H-2B cook in a given occupation and metro gets the same floor. On top of that, 20 CFR 655.20(a) requires the offered wage to be at least the highest of the prevailing wage and the federal, state or local minimum wage.

PERM: four wage levels

The validity of a determination is between 90 days and one year for both programs (20 CFR 656.40(c) for PERM, 655.10(h) for H-2B). For PERM you must file, or begin the required recruitment, within that period.

5. Looking up chef wages yourself

The old address flcdatacenter.com now redirects to the OFLC Wage Search on flag.dol.gov.

1. Open OFLC Wage Search and choose the current wage year. The 2026–27 wage year runs 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, based on BLS's May 2025 wage estimates.
2. Search by SOC code: 35-1011 Chefs and Head Cooks for a supervising head chef or sushi chef, 35-2014 Cooks, Restaurant for a line cook, decided by the rule in section 3.
3. Select the area of the worksite, usually the metro area.
4. Read the four levels (for PERM) and the mean (for H-2B).

For all areas at once, OFLC's Wage Data Downloads page offers the full data set as a zip file.

6. Chef prevailing wages in major metros, 2026–27

Hourly figures from OFLC's wage data:

For restaurant cooks (35-2014), the H-2B mean ranges from $15.85 in Houston and $17.24 in Dallas-Fort Worth to $21.52 in Los Angeles and $23.56 in Seattle. Note the gap: an H-2B chef in Chicago must be paid at least the $31.02 mean, while a PERM chef assessed at Level I has a floor of only $22.48 — the H-2B floor is effectively the Level III figure, which surprises employers who assume a temporary visa is cheaper. What Chicago actually pays above these legal floors is on hiring a sushi chef in Chicago; for pay across every market, see sushi chef salary by country.

7. Requesting a determination: Form ETA-9141

• Submit Form ETA-9141, Application for Prevailing Wage Determination, to the NPWC through the FLAG system. OFLC has accepted online 9141 filings for all programs since 10 June 2019.
• For H-2B, OFLC encourages filing at least 60 days before you need the determination.
• Processing. As of 31 August 2026, OFLC was working on H-2B requests filed in July and August 2026 and PERM requests filed in May 2026, with more than 14,000 PERM requests received in each of June, July and August still pending. Allow several months for PERM.
• If you disagree with the result, you can ask for a redetermination and then a Center Director review.

8. The March 2026 proposed rule: what to do now

On 27 March 2026, DOL published a notice of proposed rulemaking, "Improving Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Foreign Nationals in the United States" (RIN 1205-AC30), raising the four PERM wage levels:

It covers PERM (EB-2 and EB-3), H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3, and does not cover H-2B. Comments closed 26 May 2026; as of September 2026 it remains a proposal with no effective date. Under it, a Level I floor would move to roughly today's Level II; on the 2026–27 Chicago figures, that is about $22.48 moving toward $26.73, before new wage data is folded in.

What to do now: if a chef case is ready, request the determination and file within its validity window under current levels rather than waiting; a determination in hand is not retroactively raised if the rule finalizes later. If your case is further out, budget as though the higher levels may apply by filing time, especially for a Level I role, which sees the largest proposed jump. Watch for a final rule and effective date rather than acting on the proposal itself.

General information gathered from official sources in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. Prevailing wages update each July, and the March 2026 proposal may change before any final rule. Check the linked pages or an immigration attorney before acting.