Head chef salary in the UK (2026)

What does a Head chef earn?

What employers advertise across the UK.

£38,300 per year, median

the midpoint of 968 advertised salaries from 330 employers, collected 26 Aug 2026 – 20 Oct 2026

about £3,200 a month

Low: £30,000
Median: £38,300
Average: £41,100
High: £56,200

Median Average

Low £30,000 High £56,200

The bar leaves out the highest and lowest tenth of advertised salaries; the darker section is the middle half.

Half of the adverts fall between £32,700 and £45,000. “Low” and “high” are the bottom and top tenth of what is advertised, not the single cheapest and dearest advert — one unusual posting should not decide either end.

How this figure was worked out

968 advertised salaries, from 330 different employers.
Collected between 26 Aug 2026 and 20 Oct 2026.
Stated in the advert as a yearly figure (700), an hourly rate (264), a monthly figure (4). Hourly and monthly figures are converted to a year at 1,950 hours, so they can be compared with the ones stated annually.
Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. Adverts offering part-time only are left out, because a part-time figure is not comparable with a full-time one.

These are advertised salaries, read from the text of employers’ own job adverts. They are not verified with the employer, they are not what anyone is necessarily paid, and they are not a pay survey.

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