Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria in New Hampshire

Fresh vegetables and a plated meal at a professional kitchen prep station.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$38,635

after federal, FICA and New Hampshire tax

Tax takes

$6,735

14.8% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$36,675

New Hampshire costs more than average

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

$45,370

Kept after tax

$38,635

Worth in national money

$36,675

State rank

11

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • This is a good state for the work. New Hampshire pays this job a middle wage of $45,370, ranking 11 of 51 states and sitting about 21.15% above the national middle.
  • Against 488 occupations New Hampshire publishes, this job lands at 405. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
  • Costs eat into it here. Of $45,370, tax leaves $38,635 — and because New Hampshire is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $36,675 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $45,450, since top earners drag the number up.
  • New Hampshire's median for cooks, institution and cafeteria is $45,370, about 21.15% above the national figure and 11 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
  • Within New Hampshire, this work ranks 405 of 488 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.
  • After tax, $38,635 remains from the New Hampshire median of $45,370 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $36,675 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $45,450 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$35,790
Half earn under$45,370
Top tenth earn over$56,470
This salary$45,370

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

Compare with
$0take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in New Hampshire$38,635
Take-home in Texas$38,635
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$3,083

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

Moving to
$0now · $45,370$41,641
$41,641in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$45,370
You could take a cut of−$3,729
Prices in Texas97 vs 105

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of cooks, institution and cafeteria in New Hampshire earn under $45,370 and half over. The published range runs $35,790 at the tenth percentile to $56,470 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind New Hampshire's $38,635, worked from $45,370. 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 405 of 488.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $36,675 uses one figure for the whole of New Hampshire. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 405.
  • Figures are distribution medians for cooks, institution and cafeteria in New Hampshire, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,790 to $56,470; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
  • The New Hampshire take-home of $38,635, on $45,370 for work ranking 405 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 405 of 488 in the state.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $36,675, worked from $45,370, 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 New Hampshire address, on work sitting at 405 of 488 locally.

Questions people ask

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $35,790 at the bottom tenth to $56,470 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?

A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $36,675 of national purchasing power.

Is most of this wage taxed away?

No. $38,635 survives, because New Hampshire levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.

Can I compare this job across every state?

This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($35,790 to $56,470) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Hampshire rather than a national figure.

How does the state price level affect real compensation?

New Hampshire's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $36,675 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.

Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?

New Hampshire levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $38,635 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.