Cooks, Fast Food in Nevada
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,370
after federal, FICA and Nevada tax
Tax takes
$4,470
13.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,285
Nevada costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Nevada — 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
$33,840
Kept after tax
$29,370
Worth in national money
$30,285
State rank
17
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for cooks, fast food is strong here. Nevada's middle earner gets $33,840, putting the state 17 of 51 — about 9.55% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 485 occupations Nevada publishes, cooks, fast food lands at 455. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Here is where Nevada does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $33,840 you keep $29,370, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $30,285 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $34,060, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For cooks, fast food, Nevada sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $33,840, ranking 17 of 51 and running about 9.55% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Within Nevada, this work ranks 455 of 485 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After federal, FICA and Nevada income tax, retained pay for cooks, fast food on $33,840 is $29,370. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $30,285 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 $34,060 sits above the median, the right skew typical of 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 | $26,530 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $33,840 |
| Top tenth earn over | $43,440 |
| This salary | $33,840 |
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 Nevada | $29,370 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $29,370 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$61 |
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 | $33,840 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$74 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $33,840 as a midpoint for Nevada, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $26,530 and the ninetieth is $43,440 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Nevada's $29,370, worked from $33,840. 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 455 of 485.
- Two cautions on $30,285, the adjusted value of that $33,840 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Nevada. 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 455 of 485 locally.
- The Nevada median of $33,840 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $26,530 to $43,440. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Nevada take-home of $29,370, on $33,840 for work ranking 455 of 485 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 455 of 485 in the state.
- This $30,285 adjusted figure, worked from $33,840, 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 455 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 455 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $26,530 and the top tenth $43,440, so most people doing this work in Nevada sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $30,285.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $29,370 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($26,530 to $43,440) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Nevada rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Nevada'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 $30,285 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Nevada levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $29,370 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.