California · 2025 pay · 143 people
How much does a cook assistant make in California?
$50,963typical pay for a cook assistant in 2025
$28,814 – $61,039what most people earned
Includes everyone paid during 2025, including part-year workers. Typical pay rose 11.3% from 2024.
✓ Official data from California State Controller's Office · Matches the agency's latest release · sco.ca.gov ↗
Where cook assistants work
Typical pay at each employer, 2025 (everyone paid).
- University of California, Los Angeles94 people$57,920
- University of California, Irvine23 people$47,483
- University of California, Merced16 people$47,080
- University of California, Santa Cruz5 people$49,541
- University of California, Berkeley3 people$12,662
- University of California, Santa Barbara2 people$4,730
Related jobs and the next step up
Same line of work at a different rank, by typical pay (full-year employees where we can tell).
- Assistant Cook$30,713 (everyone)
- Cook Lead$47,821 (everyone)
- Cook Assistant (this page)$50,963 (everyone)
- Cook Senior$55,072 (everyone)
- Lead Cook$64,221 (everyone)
- Supervising Cook$65,221 (everyone)
- Senior Cook$71,246 (everyone)
- Head Cook$91,738 (everyone)
- Chief Cook$99,801 (everyone)
Highest-paid cook assistants, 2025
Common questions
How much does a cook assistant make in California?
The typical cook assistant was paid $50,963 in 2025; most earned between $28,814 and $61,039. This counts all 143 people paid, including part-year workers.
How much of the pay is overtime?
Overtime made up 9.3% of all pay for cook assistants in 2025.
Which job titles are included?
Everyone whose payroll title is Cook Assistant, at any level (for example "Cook Assistant"). Part-time-schedule titles (such as "20 hours") are left out. Senior, supervising and trainee titles have their own pages.
Job titles are written out in full from the payroll's abbreviations (for example "SR CRRECTNL POLC OFCR" → "Senior Correctional Police Officer"). "Typical pay" is the median; "most earned" is the middle half. How we calculate this