Chefs and Head Cooks in Nebraska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,750
after federal, FICA and Nebraska tax
Tax takes
$11,760
19.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$53,941
Nebraska costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Nebraska — 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
$60,510
Kept after tax
$48,750
Worth in national money
$53,941
State rank
31
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Nebraska is 31 of 51 states for chefs and head cooks, with a middle wage of $60,510. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Nebraska, this sits in the middle: 221 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $60,510 you keep $48,750 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $53,941 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $66,990, since top earners drag the number up.
- Nebraska ranks 31 of 51 for chefs and head cooks at $60,510. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Chefs and head cooks ranks 221 of 488 occupations in Nebraska 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.
- Retained pay in Nebraska is $48,750 after the full tax stack, from $60,510. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $53,941 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $66,990 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Chefs and Head Cooks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,650 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $60,510 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,990 |
| This salary | $60,510 |
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 Nebraska | $48,750 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $50,800 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,665 |
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 | $57,959 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,013 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Nebraska earn less than $60,510. The published range is $39,650 up to $99,990, 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 Nebraska's $48,750, worked from $60,510. 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 221 of 488.
- One number stands for prices across all of Nebraska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $53,941, the adjusted value of that $60,510 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 221 of 488 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for chefs and head cooks in Nebraska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $39,650 to $99,990. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Nebraska take-home of $48,750, on $60,510 for work ranking 221 of 488 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 221 of 488 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Nebraska, so $53,941 — the adjusted value of that $60,510 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 221 of 488 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 $66,990 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $39,650, the highest tenth $99,990, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Nebraska sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $53,941 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Nebraska adds its own income tax on top — which is why $48,750 of this wage survives to your account.
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.
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 Nebraska is $66,990. 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 ($39,650) and the ninetieth ($99,990) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Nebraska's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $53,941 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $48,750 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Nebraska 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.