--- title: Pastry Chefs Enjoy High Demand, But Not High Pay description: While the job market for Americans trained in dessert making is best its ever been, the wages for those roles have effectively flatlined. authors: - name: Kristen Bahler role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/ bio: Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. Today, she leads Money's sponsored content channel and reader-favorite franchises like Best Places to Live and Best Places to Travel. education: Northeastern University, MA Journalism at_money_since: 2016 articles: 52 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-bahler/ published: '2016-10-13T18:53:09.000Z' modified: '2016-10-13T18:53:09.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - Careers - consumer - food and drink - pastry chef word_count: 301 canonical: https://money.com/pastry-chef-demand-salary/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Fresh Meringues](https://img.money.com/2016/10/gettyimages-596392966.jpg) At a time when [desserts are trademarked](http://dominiqueansel.com/cronut-101/) and bespoke wedding cakes come at a premium, it's not surprise that the demand for pastry chefs is rising faster than dough in the oven. But while the job market for Americans trained in dessert making the is best it has ever been, aspiring pastry chefs are finding that their dreams of good wages are crumbling like overly dry crust. So says the *New York Times*, which used restauranteurs in Chicago—a nexus of food and tourism—as a litmus test. While employers in the Chicago area are hiring, the *Times* says, they are increasingly relying on inexperienced pastry chefs who will settle for lower salaries. Pastry chefs working for John Shields, executive chef and proprietor of a pair of restaurants called [Smy](http://smythandtheloyalist.com/)[th and The Loyalist](http://smythandtheloyalist.com/), are a prime example. As the *Times* notes: > Mr. Shields’s case illustrates how restaurants have managed to keep salaries in check. Instead of hiring a pastry chef who spent years honing her skills, he chose to hire a pair of sous-chefs in their mid-20s for each restaurant. He pays them about $35,000 a year. Mr. Shields, a longtime savory chef who did a tour at the famed Chicago restaurant Alinea, and his wife and business partner Karen Urie Shields, a former executive pastry chef at another noted Chicago eatery, Charlie Trotter’s, conceptualize the desserts. The two younger chefs execute them. Many restaurants "have adopted some variation of the Shields’s strategy," by using young, fresh-out-of culinary art school students for pastry chef roles, the *Times* writes. Compensation research firm [PayScale](http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Pastry_Chef/Hourly_Rate) finds that the average pastry chef in the U.S. makes between $21,000 and $51,000. In 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that chefs earned the most in Northeastern and Western states, and the least in Central and Midwestern states. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/pastry-chef-demand-salary/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Salaries and Wages", "item": "https://money.com/salaries-and-wages/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Pastry Chefs Enjoy High Demand, But Not High Pay" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/pastry-chef-demand-salary/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/pastry-chef-demand-salary/", "name": "Pastry Chefs Enjoy High Demand, But Not High Pay", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-10-13T18:53:09.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/pastry-chef-demand-salary/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/pastry-chef-demand-salary/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-10-13T18:53:09.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Pastry Chefs Enjoy High Demand, But Not High Pay", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/10/gettyimages-596392966.jpg", "width": 7952, "height": 5304, "caption": "Fresh Meringues" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kristen Bahler", "url": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/#author", "description": "Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. 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