Cooks, Fast Food in Idaho
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,351
after federal, FICA and Idaho tax
Tax takes
$4,719
15.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,823
Idaho costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Idaho — 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
$31,070
Kept after tax
$26,351
Worth in national money
$28,823
State rank
23
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Idaho is 23 of 51 states for cooks, fast food, with a middle wage of $31,070. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within Idaho this is lower-paid work. Of 476 occupations the state publishes figures for, cooks, fast food ranks 463. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where Idaho does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $31,070 you keep $26,351, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $28,823 would elsewhere. The average is lower, $29,060, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- Idaho ranks 23 of 51 for cooks, fast food at $31,070. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation Idaho reports, cooks, fast food ranks 463 of 476, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- After federal, FICA and Idaho income tax, retained pay for cooks, fast food on $31,070 is $26,351. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $28,823 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $29,060 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Cooks, Fast Food
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $18,620 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $31,070 |
| Top tenth earn over | $35,860 |
| This salary | $31,070 |
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 Idaho | $26,351 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,145 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$889 |
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 | $30,083 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,075 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $31,070 as a midpoint for Idaho, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $18,620 and the ninetieth is $35,860 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $26,351 take-home in Idaho comes from $31,070. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 463 of 476.
- One number stands for prices across all of Idaho, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $28,823, the adjusted value of that $31,070 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 463 of 476 in the state.
- The Idaho median of $31,070 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $18,620 to $35,860. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $26,351, from $31,070, assumes a single Idaho filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 463 of 476 locally, and the state ranks 23 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Idaho, so $28,823 — the adjusted value of that $31,070 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 463 of 476 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $29,060, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $18,620 at the tenth percentile, $35,860 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Idaho sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $28,823 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 Idaho adds its own income tax on top — which is why $26,351 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 Idaho is $29,060. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($18,620 to $35,860) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Idaho rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Idaho'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 $28,823 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 $26,351 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Idaho 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.