Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria in Georgia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,223
after federal, FICA and Georgia tax
Tax takes
$5,867
16.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,220
Georgia costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Georgia — 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
$35,090
Kept after tax
$29,223
Worth in national money
$30,220
State rank
41
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Georgia pays this job a middle wage of $35,090, 41 of 51 states and about 6.3% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Georgia this is lower-paid work. Of 492 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 444. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where Georgia does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $35,090 you keep $29,223, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $30,220 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $35,380, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Georgia's $35,090 median for cooks, institution and cafeteria places it 41 of 51 states, about 6.3% 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 Georgia reports, cooks, institution and cafeteria ranks 444 of 492, 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 Georgia income tax, retained pay for cooks, institution and cafeteria on $35,090 is $29,223. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $30,220 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 $35,380 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,090 |
| Top tenth earn over | $44,540 |
| This salary | $35,090 |
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 Georgia | $29,223 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,375 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,038 |
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 | $33,656 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,255 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $35,090 as a midpoint for Georgia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $28,220 and the ninetieth is $44,540 — 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 Georgia's $29,223, worked from $35,090. 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 444 of 492.
- Two cautions on $30,220, the adjusted value of that $35,090 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Georgia. 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 444 of 492 locally.
- The Georgia median of $35,090 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $28,220 to $44,540. 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 Georgia take-home of $29,223, on $35,090 for work ranking 444 of 492 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 444 of 492 in the state.
- This $30,220 adjusted figure, worked from $35,090, 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 444 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 444 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $28,220 and the top tenth $44,540, so most people doing this work in Georgia 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 $30,220.
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 Georgia adds its own income tax on top — which is why $29,223 of this wage survives to your account.
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 ($28,220 to $44,540) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Georgia rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Georgia'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 $30,220 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 $29,223 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Georgia 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.