Chefs and Head Cooks in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,207
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$10,683
17.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,669
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$59,890
Kept after tax
$49,207
Worth in national money
$48,669
State rank
33
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Arizona pays chefs and head cooks around $59,890 at the midpoint, 33 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Arizona, this sits in the middle: 230 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $59,890, tax leaves $49,207, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $48,669 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $60,330, since top earners drag the number up.
- For chefs and head cooks the Arizona median is $59,890, ranking 33 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.
- Chefs and head cooks ranks 230 of 491 occupations in Arizona by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for chefs and head cooks — median $59,890 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $49,207 retained, $48,669 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $60,330 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Chefs and Head Cooks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,970 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,890 |
| Top tenth earn over | $95,240 |
| This salary | $59,890 |
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 Arizona | $49,207 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $50,302 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,095 |
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 | $58,528 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,743 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Arizona earn less than $59,890. The published range is $33,970 up to $95,240, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Arizona's $49,207, worked from $59,890. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 230 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $48,669 uses one figure for the whole of Arizona. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 230.
- Reported values are medians; for chefs and head cooks in Arizona the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $33,970 to $95,240. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Arizona take-home of $49,207, on $59,890 for work ranking 230 of 491 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 230 of 491 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $48,669, worked from $59,890, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Arizona address, on work sitting at 230 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $33,970, the highest tenth $95,240, 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. Arizona costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $48,669 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Arizona's own levy, $49,207 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($33,970) and the ninetieth ($95,240) 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?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $48,669 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $49,207 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
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.