Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria in Louisiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$22,223
after federal, FICA and Louisiana tax
Tax takes
$3,267
12.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$25,154
Louisiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Louisiana — 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
$25,490
Kept after tax
$22,223
Worth in national money
$25,154
State rank
51
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Louisiana pays this job a middle wage of $25,490, 51 of 51 states and about 31.94% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against 484 occupations Louisiana publishes, this job lands at 470. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Louisiana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $25,490 the take-home is $22,223; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $25,154 would nationally. The average comes to $27,300, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Louisiana's $25,490 median for cooks, institution and cafeteria places it 51 of 51 states, about 31.94% 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.
- Within Louisiana, this work ranks 470 of 484 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, institution and cafeteria in Louisiana, on $25,490, is $22,223 — equivalent to $25,154 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 $27,300 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 | $19,250 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $25,490 |
| Top tenth earn over | $36,200 |
| This salary | $25,490 |
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 Louisiana | $22,223 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $22,601 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,896 |
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 | $25,030 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,238 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $25,490 as a midpoint for Louisiana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $19,250 and the ninetieth is $36,200 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $22,223 take-home in Louisiana comes from $25,490. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 470 of 484.
- One number stands for prices across all of Louisiana, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $25,154, the adjusted value of that $25,490 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 470 of 484 in the state.
- The Louisiana median of $25,490 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $19,250 to $36,200. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $22,223, from $25,490, assumes a single Louisiana filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 470 of 484 locally, and the state ranks 51 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Louisiana, so $25,154 — the adjusted value of that $25,490 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 470 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $27,300 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $19,250 at the tenth percentile, $36,200 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Louisiana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $25,154 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Louisiana then takes its own share, leaving $22,223.
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 Louisiana is $27,300. 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 ($19,250 to $36,200) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Louisiana rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Louisiana'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 $25,154 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 $22,223 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Louisiana 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.