Food preparation and serving related occupations · SOC 35-2013
Cooks, private household
Cooks, private household earned a median of $44,530 per year in the U.S. in 2024, employment is projected to grow +5.1% from 2024–2034, with about 5,300 openings projected each year. Typical entry-level education: Postsecondary nondegree award.
Median annual pay
$44,530
Near the $49,500 median for all U.S. occupations
Projected growth (2024–2034)
+5.1%
Faster than the +3.1% projected for all occupations
Annual openings (avg)
5,300
Projected 2024–2034
Employed (2024)
34,200
Typical entry education
Postsecondary nondegree award
Work experience
Less than 5 years
How to become one
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports as typical for entry, nationally. Typical is a measurement of the people already doing the work, not a rule: some enter with less and some with more.
- 1
Education most entrants hold
Postsecondary nondegree award
This is what people entering the occupation usually hold, measured nationally. Individual employers set their own bar, in both directions.
- 2
Prior experience in a related occupation
Less than 5 years
Time spent in a different, related occupation before entering this one. It is not an internship or a training period.
Licensing is not in these figures.
Many occupations, including most of health care, teaching, law, accountancy and the skilled trades, require a state licence, certification or registration before you can work. Requirements are set by each state and are not part of the federal dataset above, so CampusPin cannot tell you whether this occupation is licensed where you live. Check your state's licensing board before committing to a route, because for a licensed occupation that requirement, not the typical credential, is the real gate.
The fields people actually study to get here are listed below, ordered by how many credentials U.S. colleges conferred in each.
Explore your next step
Use CampusPin to search and compare U.S. colleges by cost, admissions, and location, and to browse college majors. CampusPin doesn't link this occupation to specific programs at specific institutions, always confirm what a college offers with the institution.
College majors that lead here
Fields associated with cooks, private household, with how many credentials U.S. colleges conferred in each and the level most of them were. Ordered by credentials conferred, which measures how many people take a route rather than how good it is. Studying any of these does not lead only here, and this occupation is entered from other fields too.
Credentials conferred in 2023-24, U.S. Department of Education IPEDS completions. A certificate is a different credential from a degree, not a lesser one, and a count here is not evidence that a program is currently admitting students.
More occupations in this field
Occupations in the same federal BLS group (Food preparation and serving related occupations), grouped by the standard occupational classification, not a curated related-occupation mapping.
Put these numbers in context
The pay figure above is an occupation-wide median, and the outlook is a national projection for the whole occupation, neither a personal nor a starting figure. These CampusPin guides explain how to read them and how a career connects to college choices.
Why a median wage is not a starting salary
How to read a BLS median, and why new graduates usually earn below it.
Does a pricier college pay off?
How college cost lines up with graduation and earnings, an association, not a ranking.
How one major connects to many careers
A major is a direction toward several occupations, not a single destination.
Compare cost, earnings, and debt together
Read price, earnings, and debt side by side without inventing one ROI score.
Source & methodology
Figures are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections program (Employment Projections). Wages are 2024; employment projections cover 2024–2034. Public domain (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Credit BLS.
- U.S. national figures only, wages and outlook vary by state, metro, employer, and experience.
- Median wage is the 2024 BLS estimate; projections are BLS model estimates for 2024–2034, not guarantees.
- Occupational data is national and is NOT an institution-specific or graduate outcome.
- Very high wages are capped by BLS and stored as null rather than a fabricated number.
Suggested citation
CampusPin. (2026). Cooks, private household, occupation profile. Retrieved from https://campuspin.com/careers/cooks-private-household
See a problem with this data? Report a correction.