Cooks, Fast Food in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$19,464
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$3,206
14.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$22,298
Mississippi costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Mississippi — 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
$22,670
Kept after tax
$19,464
Worth in national money
$22,298
State rank
51
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Mississippi pays cooks, fast food a middle wage of $22,670, 51 of 51 states and about 26.61% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Mississippi this is lower-paid work. Of 486 occupations the state publishes figures for, cooks, fast food ranks 478. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $22,670 you keep $19,464 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $22,298 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $23,560, since top earners drag the number up.
- Mississippi's $22,670 median for cooks, fast food places it 51 of 51 states, about 26.61% 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.
- Against every occupation Mississippi reports, cooks, fast food ranks 478 of 486, 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.
- Retained pay in Mississippi is $19,464 after the full tax stack, from $22,670. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $22,298 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $23,560 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Cooks, Fast Food
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $18,540 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $22,670 |
| Top tenth earn over | $28,790 |
| This salary | $22,670 |
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 Mississippi | $19,464 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $20,279 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,429 |
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 | $21,681 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,687 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Mississippi earn less than $22,670. The published range is $18,540 up to $28,790, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Mississippi the take-home figure of $19,464, from $22,670, 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 478 of 486 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $22,298 uses one figure for the whole of Mississippi. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 486 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 478.
- Reported values are medians; for cooks, fast food in Mississippi the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $18,540 to $28,790. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Mississippi is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $19,464 from $22,670. 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 478 of 486 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $22,298, worked from $22,670, 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 Mississippi address, on work sitting at 478 of 486 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 $23,560, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $18,540 at the bottom tenth to $28,790 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Mississippi sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $22,298 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 Mississippi adds its own income tax on top — which is why $19,464 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 Mississippi is $23,560. 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 ($18,540 to $28,790) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Mississippi rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Mississippi'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 $22,298 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 $19,464 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Mississippi 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.