Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria in Kansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,358
after federal, FICA and Kansas tax
Tax takes
$5,592
17.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,298
Kansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Kansas — 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
$31,950
Kept after tax
$26,358
Worth in national money
$29,298
State rank
44
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Kansas pays this job a middle wage of $31,950, 44 of 51 states and about 14.69% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Kansas this is lower-paid work. Of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 456. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Kansas is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $31,950 the take-home is $26,358; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $29,298 would nationally. The average comes to $32,990, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Kansas's $31,950 median for cooks, institution and cafeteria places it 44 of 51 states, about 14.69% 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 Kansas reports, cooks, institution and cafeteria ranks 456 of 488, 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.
- Post-tax income for cooks, institution and cafeteria in Kansas, on $31,950, is $26,358 — equivalent to $29,298 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 $32,990 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $25,440 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $31,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $42,000 |
| This salary | $31,950 |
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 Kansas | $26,358 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,852 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$636 |
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 | $30,090 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$769 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Kansas earn less than $31,950. The published range is $25,440 up to $42,000, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Kansas's $26,358, worked from $31,950. 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 456 of 488.
- Two cautions on $29,298, the adjusted value of that $31,950 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Kansas. 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 456 of 488 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for cooks, institution and cafeteria in Kansas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $25,440 to $42,000. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Kansas take-home of $26,358, on $31,950 for work ranking 456 of 488 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 456 of 488 in the state.
- This $29,298 adjusted figure, worked from $31,950, 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 456 of 488 in the state. The occupation ranks 456 of 488 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 $32,990, 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?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $25,440 at the tenth percentile, $42,000 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Kansas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $29,298 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 Kansas adds its own income tax on top — which is why $26,358 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.
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 Kansas is $32,990. 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 ($25,440 to $42,000) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Kansas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Kansas'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 $29,298 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 $26,358 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Kansas 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.