All occupations · #185 of 1,410 by volume
Chefs and Head Cooks
SOC 35-1011, in the food preparation and serving major group. 234 PERM filings in DOL's current disclosure window, 205 certified and 27 denied.
Median wage
$59,197
all PERM $103,272
Filings
234
#185 of 1,410
Approval
88.4%
field 96.8%
Median days
391
86 faster than the field
Median offered wage
$59,197above 42%
Approval rate
88.4%ahead of 11%
Median days to decision
391 daysahead of 79%
Who files this job
The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, and the states the work sits in.
Sponsors filing it
- FOGO DE CHAO HOLDINGS INC. 16 filings
- So so fresh sushi llc 7 filings
- WORLD FOOD ENTERPRISES, LLC. DBA DELI 4 YOU 5 filings
- BHTJ INVESTMENT INC 4 filings
- DOMO CAFE 3 filings
- 2TASTE BK INC 2 filings
The employers with the most applications under this code. 37 of 234 filings, 16% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Baker Hostetler LLP 16 filings
- Kriezelman Burton Associates, LLC 10 filings
- Baker, Olson,LeCroy, Danielian 6 filings
- Lau Immigration Law, PLLC 6 filings
- LAW OFFICES OF D ROBERT JONES PLLC 6 filings
- Law Offices of Dale N. Chen 6 filings
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 50 of 234 filings, 21% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- California 46
- Florida 26
- New York 22
- Texas 22
- Illinois 19
- Pennsylvania 10
The worksite state on the application, which is where the job is and not where the company is headquartered. Volume by state across everyone is on the state map. These 6 states cover 145 of 234 filings.
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 185 of 1,410 by volume: 184 filed at least as many filings, and 1,225 filed no more.
- Just above
- Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks 235 filings
- Just below
- Nursery Worker 234 filings
Other food preparation and serving roles
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. Wages inside a group still swing hard, because the group holds every seniority level and every metro.
- #194 Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food 222 filings · 105 denied
- #200 Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers 218 filings · 3 denied
- #142 Dishwashers 352 filings · 13 denied
- #129 First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers 405 filings · 18 denied
- #127 Food Preparation Worker 406 filings · 36 denied
- #118 Cooks, Fast Food 452 filings · 33 denied
Reading the wage
This is the median wage employers committed to in federal filings for this occupation. It mixes every experience level and every metro, and it's a floor: the employer must offer at least the prevailing wage DOL determines for the occupation, level and county. Across all PERM filings the middle half of offered wages runs $45,178 to $141,357, so a figure inside that band is unremarkable whichever occupation it belongs to.
What these numbers don't say
- The code is the identity
- Two SOC codes can carry the same job title, so a title that looks duplicated on the ranking is two different occupations. Match on the code when you're checking a specific filing.
- A median isn’t an offer
- It's the middle of every wage committed to for this occupation across the country, entry level and principal alike. The same role's medians swing hard by worksite, which the state map shows directly.
- Approval isn’t about the occupation
- The denial rate moves with what happened in the filing rather than with the job title. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- Every case in DOL's disclosure files carries a decision date, so a case still waiting is in none of these counts. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.
The window these figures cover
DOL's FY2026 Q3 and FY2025 Q4 and New Form FY2024 Q4 and FY2024 Q4 PERM disclosure files, unioned and de-duplicated by case number: 373,939 cases. Every case in them carries a decision, so nothing here counts what’s still pending. How each figure is built, and what it can and can't answer, is set out in the methodology.
Weighing an offer?
Compare it against this median, then check the state map, where the same occupation's medians swing hard by worksite.
Setting one?
All 1,410 occupations sort together on the wages page, and denial rates show how outcome moves with the offered wage.
Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly
Employers and firms: Derived from the disclosure corpus · data through Aug 26, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly ingest