Cooks, Fast Food in Wyoming
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$25,441
after federal, FICA and Wyoming tax
Tax takes
$3,509
12.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,004
Wyoming costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wyoming — 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
$28,950
Kept after tax
$25,441
Worth in national money
$28,004
State rank
33
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Wyoming pays cooks, fast food around $28,950 at the midpoint, 33 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 433 occupations Wyoming publishes, cooks, fast food lands at 422. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $28,950 you keep $25,441 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $28,004 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $30,030, since top earners drag the number up.
- For cooks, fast food the Wyoming median is $28,950, ranking 33 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 Wyoming, this work ranks 422 of 433 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.
- Retained pay in Wyoming is $25,441 after the full tax stack, from $28,950. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $28,004 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $30,030 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 | $21,240 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $28,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $42,520 |
| This salary | $28,950 |
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 Wyoming | $25,441 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $25,441 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,823 |
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 | $28,950 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,205 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Wyoming earn less than $28,950. The published range is $21,240 up to $42,520, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Wyoming the take-home figure of $25,441, from $28,950, 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 422 of 433 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $28,004 uses one figure for the whole of Wyoming. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 433 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 422.
- Reported values are medians; for cooks, fast food in Wyoming the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $21,240 to $42,520. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Wyoming is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $25,441 from $28,950. 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 422 of 433 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $28,004, worked from $28,950, 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 Wyoming address, on work sitting at 422 of 433 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $30,030, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $21,240 at the bottom tenth to $42,520 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Wyoming sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $28,004 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $25,441 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?
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 Wyoming is $30,030. 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 ($21,240) and the ninetieth ($42,520) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Wyoming'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 $28,004 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?
Wyoming levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $25,441 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.