Cooks, Restaurant in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,454
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$6,006
15.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,806
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$38,460
Kept after tax
$32,454
Worth in national money
$29,806
State rank
17
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- New Jersey is one of the better-paying states for cooks, restaurant. The middle earner takes $38,460, which ranks 17 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 2.86% above the national middle.
- Against 490 occupations New Jersey publishes, cooks, restaurant lands at 448. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- New Jersey is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $38,460 the take-home is $32,454; in national-average money that behaves like $29,806. The average comes to $40,770, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- New Jersey ranks 17 of 51 states publishing a median for cooks, restaurant, at $38,460 — about 2.86% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Within New Jersey, this work ranks 448 of 490 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.
- Take-home for cooks, restaurant in New Jersey, on $38,460, is $32,454; deflated by the state's price level, $29,806. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $40,770 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Cooks, Restaurant
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $32,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,460 |
| Top tenth earn over | $50,010 |
| This salary | $38,460 |
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 New Jersey | $32,454 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,083 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,238 |
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 | $37,678 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,125 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $38,460 as a midpoint for New Jersey, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $32,220 and the ninetieth is $50,010 — 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 New Jersey's $32,454, worked from $38,460. 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 448 of 490.
- One number stands for prices across all of New Jersey, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $29,806, the adjusted value of that $38,460 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 448 of 490 in the state.
- The New Jersey median of $38,460 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $32,220 to $50,010. 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 New Jersey take-home of $32,454, on $38,460 for work ranking 448 of 490 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 448 of 490 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for New Jersey, so $29,806 — the adjusted value of that $38,460 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 448 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $40,770 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $32,220 at the tenth percentile, $50,010 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in New Jersey run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $29,806 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 New Jersey adds its own income tax on top — which is why $32,454 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 New Jersey is $40,770. 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 ($32,220 to $50,010) 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 Jersey rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $29,806 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $32,454 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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.