Cooks, Restaurant in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,062
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$5,878
15.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,851
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — 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
$36,940
Kept after tax
$31,062
Worth in national money
$33,851
State rank
25
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Missouri is 25 of 51 states for cooks, restaurant, with a middle wage of $36,940. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within Missouri this is lower-paid work. Of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, cooks, restaurant ranks 429. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $36,940 you keep $31,062 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $33,851 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $38,460, since top earners drag the number up.
- Missouri ranks 25 of 51 for cooks, restaurant at $36,940. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation Missouri reports, cooks, restaurant ranks 429 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.
- Retained pay in Missouri is $31,062 after the full tax stack, from $36,940. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $33,851 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $38,460 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Cooks, Restaurant
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,890 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $46,970 |
| This salary | $36,940 |
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 Missouri | $31,062 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,861 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,064 |
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 | $35,946 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,286 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
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, restaurant in Missouri earn under $36,940 and half over. The published range runs $28,890 at the tenth percentile to $46,970 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $31,062 take-home in Missouri comes from $36,940. 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 429 of 488.
- One number stands for prices across all of Missouri, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $33,851, the adjusted value of that $36,940 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 429 of 488 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for cooks, restaurant in Missouri, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $28,890 to $46,970; 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.
- Retained pay of $31,062, from $36,940, assumes a single Missouri 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 429 of 488 locally, and the state ranks 25 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Missouri, so $33,851 — the adjusted value of that $36,940 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 429 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $38,460, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $28,890 and the top tenth $46,970, so most people doing this work in Missouri sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Missouri sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $33,851 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 Missouri adds its own income tax on top — which is why $31,062 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.
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 Missouri is $38,460. 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 ($28,890 to $46,970) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Missouri rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri'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 $33,851 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 $31,062 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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.