Cooks, Restaurant in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,097
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$5,573
15.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,906
Iowa costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Iowa — 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
$35,670
Kept after tax
$30,097
Worth in national money
$33,906
State rank
38
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for cooks, restaurant is on the low side in Iowa. The middle earner gets $35,670. That is 38 of 51 states, and about 4.6% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 493 occupations Iowa publishes, cooks, restaurant lands at 454. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Iowa is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $35,670 the take-home is $30,097; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $33,906 would nationally. The average comes to $35,700, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For cooks, restaurant, Iowa sits in the lower band at $35,670, ranking 38 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 4.6%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Iowa, this work ranks 454 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.
- Post-tax income for cooks, restaurant in Iowa, on $35,670, is $30,097 — equivalent to $33,906 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 $35,700 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Cooks, Restaurant
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,690 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,670 |
| Top tenth earn over | $44,460 |
| This salary | $35,670 |
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 Iowa | $30,097 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,841 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,168 |
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 | $34,744 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,622 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $35,670 as a midpoint for Iowa, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $28,690 and the ninetieth is $44,460 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $30,097 take-home in Iowa comes from $35,670. 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 454 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $33,906 uses one figure for the whole of Iowa. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 454.
- The Iowa median of $35,670 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $28,690 to $44,460. 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 $30,097, from $35,670, assumes a single Iowa 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 454 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $33,906, worked from $35,670, 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 Iowa address, on work sitting at 454 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $28,690 at the tenth percentile, $44,460 at the ninetieth.
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 $33,906.
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 Iowa adds its own income tax on top — which is why $30,097 of this wage survives to your account.
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 ($28,690 to $44,460) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Iowa rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Iowa'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 $33,906 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 $30,097 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Iowa 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.