Cooks, Restaurant in New Mexico
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,780
after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax
Tax takes
$5,240
15.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,948
New Mexico costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Mexico — 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
$35,020
Kept after tax
$29,780
Worth in national money
$32,948
State rank
43
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. New Mexico pays cooks, restaurant a middle wage of $35,020, 43 of 51 states and about 6.34% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within New Mexico this is lower-paid work. Of 485 occupations the state publishes figures for, cooks, restaurant ranks 444. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where New Mexico does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $35,020 you keep $29,780, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $32,948 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $35,070, because the best-paid pull it up.
- New Mexico's $35,020 median for cooks, restaurant places it 43 of 51 states, about 6.34% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation New Mexico reports, cooks, restaurant ranks 444 of 485, 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.
- After federal, FICA and New Mexico income tax, retained pay for cooks, restaurant on $35,020 is $29,780. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $32,948 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $35,070 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Cooks, Restaurant
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,100 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,020 |
| Top tenth earn over | $43,400 |
| This salary | $35,020 |
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 Mexico | $29,780 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,319 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,748 |
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 | $34,350 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,114 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $35,020 as a midpoint for New Mexico, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $28,100 and the ninetieth is $43,400 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In New Mexico the take-home figure of $29,780, from $35,020, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 444 of 485 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $32,948, the adjusted value of that $35,020 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Mexico. 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 444 of 485 locally.
- The New Mexico median of $35,020 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $28,100 to $43,400. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for New Mexico is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $29,780 from $35,020. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 444 of 485 locally.
- This $32,948 adjusted figure, worked from $35,020, 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 444 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 444 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $28,100 and the top tenth $43,400, so most people doing this work in New Mexico 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 $32,948.
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 Mexico adds its own income tax on top — which is why $29,780 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 ($28,100 to $43,400) 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 Mexico rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
New Mexico'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 $32,948 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 $29,780 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Mexico 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.