How Much Chefs And Cooks Do Earn Per Hour In US?

It all depends on where the chef or cook is employed. Most start off 30-55 thousand a year, and work there way up to as much as 75 thousand.

Simple cooks often make a lot less.

~thranax~

To answer your question, lets differentiate a chef from a cook first. The job of a chef comes with supervisory and administrative duties on top of implementing menus and developing recipes. Most working chefs who have to work the line (where cooking equipment are lined up for an efficient food production in a kitchen) make between $40 K and $60 K. Established chefs could get paid as much as $85 K. Remember they are salaried and could be working six days a week and 12-14 hour days.

On the other hand, cooks have it easier. They just have to come to work with good attitute, follow recipes and do what's being asked and told. Hourly pay for them could be as high as $17 in some high-profile places where only the best cooks survive the pressure. The lowest I've started a cook is $8 an hour.

I really like the above answer but I just wanted to add a few things. There are a huge number of factors that go into what you could make as a chef/cook. Just a few are the area you're working in (you'll most likely make more in New York than in Minneapolis), how much, if any, training you have. If you have a culinary degree of any variety you'll likely make more, even at a lowly line cook position, than someone without. Also, whether you work for someone else or have your own business can dramatically affect income. Just a few more things to think about.