Bartenders in Florida
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,423
after federal, FICA and Florida tax
Tax takes
$4,727
13.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,408
Florida costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Florida — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$35,150
Kept after tax
$30,423
Worth in national money
$29,408
State rank
21
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Florida pays bartenders around $35,150 at the midpoint, 21 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 493 occupations Florida publishes, bartenders lands at 455. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $35,150, tax leaves $30,423 — and because Florida is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $29,408 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $42,280, since top earners drag the number up.
- For bartenders the Florida median is $35,150, ranking 21 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Florida, this work ranks 455 of 493 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After tax, $30,423 remains from the Florida median of $35,150 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $29,408 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $42,280 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Bartenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $27,430 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,150 |
| Top tenth earn over | $66,400 |
| This salary | $35,150 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Florida | $30,423 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,423 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,900 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $35,150 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,297 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 103 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $35,150 as a midpoint for Florida, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $27,430 and the ninetieth is $66,400 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Florida the take-home figure of $30,423, from $35,150, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 455 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $29,408, the adjusted value of that $35,150 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Florida. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 455 of 493 locally.
- The Florida median of $35,150 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $27,430 to $66,400. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Florida is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $30,423 from $35,150. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 455 of 493 locally.
- This $29,408 adjusted figure, worked from $35,150, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 455 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 455 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $42,280, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $27,430, the highest tenth $66,400, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Florida costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $29,408 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $30,423 of this wage reaches your account, because Florida takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Florida is $42,280. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($27,430) and the ninetieth ($66,400) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Florida's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $29,408 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Florida levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $30,423 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.