Cooks, Restaurant in Oklahoma
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,740
after federal, FICA and Oklahoma tax
Tax takes
$4,980
15.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,288
Oklahoma costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Oklahoma — 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
$31,720
Kept after tax
$26,740
Worth in national money
$30,288
State rank
47
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for cooks, restaurant is on the low side in Oklahoma. The middle earner gets $31,720. That is 47 of 51 states, and about 15.16% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 492 occupations Oklahoma publishes, cooks, restaurant lands at 449. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Oklahoma is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $31,720 the take-home is $26,740; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $30,288 would nationally. The average comes to $33,920, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For cooks, restaurant, Oklahoma sits in the lower band at $31,720, ranking 47 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 15.16%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Oklahoma, this work ranks 449 of 492 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 Oklahoma, on $31,720, is $26,740 — equivalent to $30,288 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 $33,920 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 | $22,850 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $31,720 |
| Top tenth earn over | $44,170 |
| This salary | $31,720 |
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 Oklahoma | $26,740 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,667 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,817 |
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 | $30,566 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,197 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $31,720 as a midpoint for Oklahoma, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $22,850 and the ninetieth is $44,170 — 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 Oklahoma's $26,740, worked from $31,720. 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 449 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of Oklahoma, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $30,288, the adjusted value of that $31,720 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 449 of 492 in the state.
- The Oklahoma median of $31,720 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $22,850 to $44,170. 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 Oklahoma take-home of $26,740, on $31,720 for work ranking 449 of 492 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 449 of 492 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Oklahoma, so $30,288 — the adjusted value of that $31,720 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 449 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $33,920, 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 $22,850 and the top tenth $44,170, so most people doing this work in Oklahoma sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Oklahoma is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $30,288 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Oklahoma then takes its own share, leaving $26,740.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 Oklahoma is $33,920. 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 ($22,850 to $44,170) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Oklahoma rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Oklahoma'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 $30,288 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 $26,740 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Oklahoma 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.