Chefs and Head Cooks in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$55,327
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$15,343
21.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,407
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$70,670
Kept after tax
$55,327
Worth in national money
$51,407
State rank
9
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. New York pays chefs and head cooks a middle wage of $70,670, ranking 9 of 51 states and sitting about 13.13% above the national middle.
- Against other work in New York, this sits in the middle: 234 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- New York is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $70,670 the take-home is $55,327; in national-average money that behaves like $51,407. The average comes to $74,840, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- New York's median for chefs and head cooks is $70,670, about 13.13% above the national figure and 9 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Chefs and head cooks ranks 234 of 493 occupations in New York 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.
- Take-home for chefs and head cooks in New York, on $70,670, is $55,327; deflated by the state's price level, $51,407. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $74,840 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 | $46,260 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $70,670 |
| Top tenth earn over | $120,370 |
| This salary | $70,670 |
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 New York | $55,327 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $58,546 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,841 |
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 | $66,145 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,212 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of chefs and head cooks in New York earn under $70,670 and half over. The published range runs $46,260 at the tenth percentile to $120,370 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind New York's $55,327, worked from $70,670. 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 234 of 493.
- Two cautions on $51,407, the adjusted value of that $70,670 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New York. 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 234 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for chefs and head cooks in New York, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $46,260 to $120,370; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The New York take-home of $55,327, on $70,670 for work ranking 234 of 493 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 234 of 493 in the state.
- This $51,407 adjusted figure, worked from $70,670, 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 234 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 234 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 $74,840, 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 $46,260, the highest tenth $120,370, 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. New York costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $51,407 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; New York then takes its own share, leaving $55,327.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 New York is $74,840. 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 ($46,260) and the ninetieth ($120,370) 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?
New York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $51,407 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 $55,327 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.