Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,592
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$4,768
13.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,481
Texas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Texas — 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
$35,360
Kept after tax
$30,592
Worth in national money
$31,481
State rank
40
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Texas. The middle earner gets $35,360. That is 40 of 51 states, and about 5.58% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 493 occupations Texas publishes, this job lands at 441. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- No great distortion either way. Texas costs about what the country costs, so from $35,360, take-home of $30,592 is worth roughly $31,481 in national money. The average lands at $34,870, below the middle of the range.
- For cooks, institution and cafeteria, Texas sits in the lower band at $35,360, ranking 40 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 5.58%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Texas, this work ranks 441 of 493 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.
- Price parity in Texas is near the national base, so for cooks, institution and cafeteria, whose median is $35,360, the adjusted figure of $31,481 differs little from $30,592 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $34,870 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $24,770 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,360 |
| Top tenth earn over | $44,840 |
| This salary | $35,360 |
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 Texas | $30,592 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $30,592 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,910 |
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 | $35,360 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,459 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $35,360 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $24,770 and the ninetieth is $44,840 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $30,592 take-home in Texas comes from $35,360. 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 441 of 493.
- Two cautions on $31,481, the adjusted value of that $35,360 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Texas. 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 441 of 493 locally.
- The Texas median of $35,360 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $24,770 to $44,840. 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 $30,592, from $35,360, assumes a single Texas 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 441 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 40 of 51 for it.
- This $31,481 adjusted figure, worked from $35,360, 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 441 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 441 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $24,770 at the tenth percentile, $44,840 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Texas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $31,481 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $30,592 survives, because Texas 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?
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 ($24,770 to $44,840) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Texas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Texas'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 $31,481 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?
Texas levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $30,592 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.