Cooks, Restaurant in Nevada
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,203
after federal, FICA and Nevada tax
Tax takes
$5,407
14.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,237
Nevada costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Nevada — 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
$38,610
Kept after tax
$33,203
Worth in national money
$34,237
State rank
15
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for cooks, restaurant is strong here. Nevada's middle earner gets $38,610, putting the state 15 of 51 — about 3.26% ahead of the national figure.
- Measured against other jobs in Nevada, this one sits low: 420 of 485 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Nevada is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $38,610 the take-home is $33,203; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $34,237 would nationally. The average comes to $42,130, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For cooks, restaurant, Nevada sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $38,610, ranking 15 of 51 and running about 3.26% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Cooks, restaurant occupies position 420 of 485 in Nevada's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Post-tax income for cooks, restaurant in Nevada, on $38,610, is $33,203 — equivalent to $34,237 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 $42,130 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 | $30,300 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,610 |
| Top tenth earn over | $56,540 |
| This salary | $38,610 |
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 Nevada | $33,203 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,203 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$69 |
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 | $38,610 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$83 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $38,610 as a midpoint for Nevada, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $30,300 and the ninetieth is $56,540 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Nevada's $33,203, worked from $38,610. 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 420 of 485.
- Two cautions on $34,237, the adjusted value of that $38,610 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Nevada. 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 420 of 485 locally.
- The Nevada median of $38,610 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $30,300 to $56,540. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Nevada take-home of $33,203, on $38,610 for work ranking 420 of 485 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 420 of 485 in the state.
- This $34,237 adjusted figure, worked from $38,610, 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 420 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 420 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $42,130, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $30,300 and the top tenth $56,540, so most people doing this work in Nevada sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $34,237.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $33,203 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 Nevada is $42,130. 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 ($30,300 to $56,540) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Nevada rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Nevada'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 $34,237 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?
Nevada levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $33,203 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.