Chefs and Head Cooks in Florida
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,976
after federal, FICA and Florida tax
Tax takes
$9,264
15.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,342
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
$58,240
Kept after tax
$48,976
Worth in national money
$47,342
State rank
38
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Florida pays chefs and head cooks a middle wage of $58,240, 38 of 51 states and about 6.77% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Chefs and head cooks ranks 228 among 493 occupations Florida publishes pay for.
- Florida is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $58,240 the take-home is $48,976; in national-average money that behaves like $47,342. The average comes to $61,720, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Florida's $58,240 median for chefs and head cooks places it 38 of 51 states, about 6.77% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Position 228 of 493 in Florida places chefs and head cooks in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Take-home for chefs and head cooks in Florida, on $58,240, is $48,976; deflated by the state's price level, $47,342. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $61,720 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Chefs and Head Cooks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,920 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $92,300 |
| This salary | $58,240 |
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 | $48,976 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,976 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,058 |
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 | $58,240 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,698 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 103 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $58,240 as a midpoint for Florida, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $31,920 and the ninetieth is $92,300 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Florida the take-home figure of $48,976, from $58,240, 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 228 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $47,342, the adjusted value of that $58,240 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 228 of 493 locally.
- The Florida median of $58,240 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $31,920 to $92,300. 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 $48,976 from $58,240. 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 228 of 493 locally.
- This $47,342 adjusted figure, worked from $58,240, 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 228 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 228 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $61,720 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $31,920 and the top tenth $92,300 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $47,342 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $48,976 survives, because Florida levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 $61,720. 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 ($31,920) and the ninetieth ($92,300) 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 $47,342 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 $48,976 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.