Most chefs and cooks in Indian restaurants earn about ₹16,000 to ₹29,000 a month. Waiters earn about ₹16,000 to ₹30,000 in a metro and less in smaller cities. Head chefs and managers sit higher, from roughly ₹26,000 to ₹82,000 depending on where you are and who you compete with for staff. This guide breaks it down by role and city, shows what you pay on top of the salary, and tells you exactly where each number comes from.
Why do salary websites give such different numbers?
Before the tables, one thing to know. We pulled numbers from two big public sources, Indeed India and AmbitionBox, and they don't agree. They are measuring different people.
Indeed's figures come mostly from job posts. Those are often small restaurants and dhabas hiring in a hurry, so the numbers run lower. AmbitionBox figures are reported by employees themselves, and a lot of them work at hotels, cinema chains, caterers and big restaurant groups. Those pay more and offer PF.
So read each range like this. The lower end is roughly what a standalone restaurant pays. The upper end is what a hotel or chain pays. If you run a 30-seat place and a five-star hotel is hiring down the road, you'll feel pressure from the top of the range.
All figures below are monthly gross salary before PF or ESI deductions, rounded. Where a source gave a yearly figure, we divided by 12.
What should I pay each role in a metro vs a smaller city?
Metros here means Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Bengaluru. Tier-2 means cities like Jaipur, Lucknow and Indore. City-level samples are small, sometimes only a few dozen salaries, so treat tier-2 numbers as a rough guide.
| Role | Metros (per month) | Tier-2 cities (per month) |
|---|---|---|
| Head chef | ₹32,000–42,000 at standalone places; ₹64,000–82,000 at hotels and chains | ₹23,000–26,000 at standalone places; ₹44,000–62,000 at larger employers (Lucknow) |
| Chef / cook | ₹16,000–28,000 | ₹12,500–25,000 |
| Tandoor chef | ₹19,000–29,000 | Not enough data |
| Commis chef | ₹20,000–23,500 | ₹16,000–23,500 |
| Kitchen helper | ₹11,000–12,000 in job posts (check your state minimum) | About ₹13,500 (Jaipur) |
| Waiter / steward | ₹16,000–30,000 | ₹11,000–23,500 |
| Captain | ₹17,500–26,000 | ₹16,000–23,500 |
| Cashier | ₹16,000–21,000 | ₹13,500–16,500 |
| Restaurant manager | ₹26,500–46,000 | ₹21,000–46,000 |
| Dishwasher / cleaner | ₹14,000–19,000 | No reliable city figure; at least your state minimum |
| Delivery staff (in-house) | ₹20,000–22,500, fuel usually extra | ₹16,500–23,500 |
A few things jump out when you look at this as an owner.
Managers in tier-2 cities can cost almost as much as in a metro. The chains that hire them pay similar rates everywhere. If you want a manager with chain experience in Jaipur or Lucknow, budget close to metro pay.
The kitchen helper figures from job posts are low. Indeed shows helpers in Delhi at about ₹11,100 a month, but Delhi's legal minimum for unskilled work has been ₹18,456 a month since April 2025. A job post being common doesn't make it legal. More on that below.
What is the salary of a chef in India?
This is the question we get most, so here it is on its own.
- Chef or cook, all India: Indeed shows an average of ₹19,868 a month for chefs (596 salaries) and ₹17,546 for cooks (321 salaries). AmbitionBox shows chefs at ₹3.1–3.5 lakh a year, about ₹26,000–29,000 a month (5,100+ salaries).
- By experience: on AmbitionBox, chefs with 1–3 years report ₹2.8–3.1 lakh a year, and those with 12+ years report ₹5.3–5.8 lakh a year. That is roughly ₹23,000 a month at the start, rising to ₹44,000–48,000 a month.
- Head chef: Indeed's average is ₹30,068 a month (117 salaries). AmbitionBox shows ₹8.1–9 lakh a year, about ₹67,500–75,000 a month, mostly from hotels and groups.
- Tandoor chef: AmbitionBox shows ₹2.8–3.1 lakh a year across India, about ₹23,000–26,000 a month. In New Delhi it's ₹2.3–3.4 lakh and in Mumbai ₹2.7–3.5 lakh a year.
- Commis chef: AmbitionBox shows ₹2.6–2.8 lakh a year (₹21,500–23,500 a month). Indeed shows about ₹1.99 lakh a year (around ₹16,500 a month).
In practice, a good tandoor or Chinese cook who can run a station alone is hard to find in most cities. Expect to pay at the top of the range, or slightly above, for someone with a proven track record. A cook who has only done prep will accept the bottom.
What is the salary of a waiter in India?
Indeed puts the average waiter (it calls them servers) at ₹14,651 a month across India, from 236 salaries. Mumbai is the highest-paying city on that list at ₹19,717. AmbitionBox shows ₹3.2–3.5 lakh a year, about ₹26,700–29,200 a month, but many of those reports are from hotel restaurants.
For a standalone restaurant in a metro, ₹16,000–20,000 is where most waiters land. In Jaipur or Indore, job posts show ₹11,000–12,000, while AmbitionBox shows ₹2–2.8 lakh a year (about ₹16,700–23,300 a month).
Captains, the senior waiters who run a section, earn a little more. Indeed's average is ₹17,509 a month. AmbitionBox shows restaurant captains at ₹2.6–2.9 lakh a year across India.
Waiters also earn tips, and some take home a meaningful amount from them in busy places. But don't count tips as part of the salary when you hire. A waiter compares your fixed pay with the place next door.
What do I pay on top of the salary?
The salary is not the whole cost. Here's what usually gets added.
Food
Almost every restaurant feeds its staff during the shift. Most owners don't track this, but it's real food cost. If 12 people eat two meals a day, that's over 700 meals a month from your kitchen.
Stay
Cooks who move from another state for work often expect a room. Usually it's a shared room near the restaurant. It costs you rent, but it also makes staff easier to find and less likely to leave after a month.
PF (Provident Fund)
PF becomes compulsory once you employ 20 or more people. You and the employee each put in 12% of wages. The compulsory part is calculated on wages up to ₹15,000 a month. So for most restaurant staff your share tops out at ₹1,800 per person per month, and the same amount is deducted from their pay. Contributions above ₹15,000 are optional for both sides.
ESI (health insurance)
In most states ESI applies once you have 10 or more people. It covers staff earning up to ₹21,000 a month. You pay 3.25% of their wages and they pay 0.75%. Staff whose average daily wage is ₹176 or less don't pay their share, but you still pay yours.
A quick example. A waiter on ₹16,000 costs you ₹520 a month in ESI, and ₹120 is deducted from their pay.
Minimum wage
Each state sets its own minimum wages, by skill level, and revises them regularly. Delhi's rates from 1 April 2025 were ₹18,456 a month for unskilled work, ₹20,371 for semi-skilled and ₹22,411 for skilled. Other states are lower or higher. Look up your state labour department's latest notification before you fix pay for helpers and cleaners, because those are the roles most often paid below the floor.
Tips and service charge
Decide early how tips are shared and write it down. Arguments over tips cause more staff fights than salaries do. If you add a service charge to bills, tell guests it's optional and tell your staff how it's split.
Festival bonus and leave
Many owners pay a bonus around Diwali or Eid and give one weekly off. Neither shows up in the salary tables, but staff compare them when choosing where to work.
Attendance and payroll without the register
DineOpen tracks staff attendance and works out monthly pay from it, with roles that control what each person can see. It runs on the phone, tablet or computer you already have.
Start 7-day free trialHow much does a full team cost? A worked example
Take a 40-seat restaurant in Indore with a small tandoor and no bar. A place like this usually runs with about 12 people, with the owner acting as manager. Using the lower half of the tier-2 ranges above:
| Role | People | Monthly pay each | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head chef | 1 | ₹26,000 | ₹26,000 |
| Cooks (incl. tandoor) | 2 | ₹16,000 | ₹32,000 |
| Kitchen helpers | 2 | ₹13,500 | ₹27,000 |
| Waiters | 4 | ₹12,000 | ₹48,000 |
| Captain | 1 | ₹18,000 | ₹18,000 |
| Cashier | 1 | ₹14,000 | ₹14,000 |
| Dishwasher / cleaner | 1 | ₹14,000 | ₹14,000 |
| Total | 12 | ₹1,79,000 |
With 12 people, ESI likely applies in Madhya Pradesh. Eleven of them earn under ₹21,000, so your ESI share is about ₹5,000 a month. PF isn't compulsory yet because you're under 20 people. Add staff meals on top.
Before you settle on these numbers, check Madhya Pradesh's current minimum wage for each skill level. Helpers and cleaners at ₹13,500–14,000 may fall below it.
So the real staff budget for this restaurant is close to ₹1.9 lakh a month before food. If your monthly sales are ₹10 lakh, that's about 19% of sales. Try your own numbers in our staff calculator or the labour cost calculator, and see where it leaves your profit with the food business profit calculator.
How do I keep salaries from eating my profit?
- Hire for your busiest shift, not your busiest hour. Two part-timers for the dinner rush are often cheaper than one more full-timer.
- Pay a little more to the people who are hard to replace. Losing a good tandoor cook in peak season costs more than an extra ₹2,000 a month.
- Keep attendance honest. Paying for days nobody worked adds up fast. A simple attendance record that staff mark themselves fixes most of it.
- Review pay once a year, at a fixed time. Staff who know when the raise comes are less likely to leave for ₹1,000 more next door.
For hiring itself, where to find people and what to ask them, see our guide to hiring restaurant staff in India.
Where these numbers come from
We checked every figure on 21 October 2026. The date in brackets is when each source last updated that page. Salary sites change often, and small samples move a lot, so treat these as ranges, not exact pay.
- AmbitionBox (employee-reported, yearly ranges divided by 12): Chef (19 Oct 2026), Head chef (19 Oct 2026), Tandoor chef (14 Oct 2026), Commis chef (18 Oct 2026), Waiter (20 Oct 2026), Restaurant captain (20 Oct 2026), Restaurant manager (20 Oct 2026), Housekeeping staff (10 Oct 2026), Delivery boy (20 Oct 2026), plus the Jaipur, Lucknow and Indore pages for the same roles (updated between 2025 and October 2026).
- Indeed India (mostly job posts, monthly averages): Chef (15 Sep 2026), Head chef (15 May 2026), Cook (25 Jul 2026), Commis (14 Apr 2026), Kitchen helper (23 May 2026), Server (1 Sep 2026), Captain (24 Apr 2026), Cashier (22 Jul 2026), Restaurant manager (23 Jul 2026), Kitchen steward (18 Feb 2026), Housekeeper (19 Sep 2026). City pages for Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Lucknow and Indore were last updated between late 2023 and 2024 and have small samples.
- ESI: ESIC coverage and contribution pages (checked October 2026).
- PF: Zoho Payroll guide to the EPF Scheme 2026 (July 2026) for rates and the ₹15,000 ceiling, and Taxmann's analysis of EPF under the Code on Social Security (September 2026) for the 20-employee rule.
- Delhi minimum wages: Keka's summary of the Delhi notification effective 1 April 2025. We could not open a newer order on the Delhi labour department site, so check there for any later revision.
We also tried Glassdoor, PayScale and Naukri, but couldn't load their pages, so none of their numbers are used here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most chefs and cooks in Indian restaurants earn about ₹16,000 to ₹29,000 a month. Indeed India puts the average chef at ₹19,868 a month (September 2026) and AmbitionBox puts the typical range at ₹3.1 to 3.5 lakh a year, about ₹26,000 to ₹29,000 a month (October 2026). Head chefs earn more: about ₹30,000 a month on average in job posts, and ₹8.1 to 9 lakh a year at hotels and larger chains.
A waiter usually earns ₹16,000 to ₹30,000 a month in a metro city. Indeed India shows an average of ₹14,651 a month across India, with Mumbai at ₹19,717. AmbitionBox, where many reports come from hotels and chains, shows ₹3.2 to 3.5 lakh a year, about ₹26,700 to ₹29,200 a month. In tier-2 cities expect roughly ₹11,000 to ₹23,500.
PF applies once you employ 20 or more people. Both you and the employee pay 12% of wages, and the compulsory part is worked out on wages up to ₹15,000 a month, so your share is at most ₹1,800 per person. ESI applies in most states once you have 10 or more people, for staff earning up to ₹21,000 a month. You pay 3.25% of their wages and they pay 0.75%.
Check your state rules before you do. Minimum wages are set by each state and revised regularly. In Delhi, the floor from 1 April 2025 was ₹18,456 a month for unskilled work, ₹20,371 for semi-skilled and ₹22,411 for skilled. Many kitchen helper job posts offer less than that, which is a risk for the owner. Treat food and stay as extras on top of a legal wage, unless your state notification says otherwise.
Add up each role at your city rate, then add PF or ESI if they apply, plus staff meals. A 40-seat restaurant in a city like Indore with about 12 staff could spend around ₹1.8 lakh a month on salaries alone, using the lower half of the ranges in this guide. Use a staff calculator to test your own numbers.