Cooks, Fast Food in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$27,048
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$3,902
12.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,704
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$30,950
Kept after tax
$27,048
Worth in national money
$30,704
State rank
24
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. South Dakota pays cooks, fast food around $30,950 at the midpoint, 24 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 457 occupations South Dakota publishes, cooks, fast food lands at 437. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- South Dakota is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $30,950 the take-home is $27,048; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $30,704 would nationally. The average comes to $31,230, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For cooks, fast food the South Dakota median is $30,950, ranking 24 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within South Dakota, this work ranks 437 of 457 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.
- Post-tax income for cooks, fast food in South Dakota, on $30,950, is $27,048 — equivalent to $30,704 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $31,230 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Cooks, Fast Food
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $25,410 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $30,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $34,910 |
| This salary | $30,950 |
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 South Dakota | $27,048 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,048 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,869 |
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 | $30,950 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,470 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $30,950 as a midpoint for South Dakota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $25,410 and the ninetieth is $34,910 — 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 South Dakota's $27,048, worked from $30,950. 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 437 of 457.
- One number stands for prices across all of South Dakota, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $30,704, the adjusted value of that $30,950 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 437 of 457 in the state.
- The South Dakota median of $30,950 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $25,410 to $34,910. 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 South Dakota take-home of $27,048, on $30,950 for work ranking 437 of 457 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 437 of 457 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for South Dakota, so $30,704 — the adjusted value of that $30,950 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 437 of 457 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $25,410 at the bottom tenth to $34,910 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 South Dakota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $30,704 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $27,048 of this wage reaches your account, because South Dakota takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($25,410 to $34,910) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Dakota'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 $30,704 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?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $27,048 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.