Cooks, Short Order in Connecticut
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,718
after federal, FICA and Connecticut tax
Tax takes
$7,732
18.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,483
Connecticut costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Connecticut — 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
$42,450
Kept after tax
$34,718
Worth in national money
$33,483
State rank
8
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Connecticut is one of the better-paying states for cooks, short order. The middle earner takes $42,450, which ranks 8 of 49 states with published figures. That is about 18.31% above the national middle.
- Against 482 occupations Connecticut publishes, cooks, short order lands at 410. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Connecticut is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $42,450 the take-home is $34,718; in national-average money that behaves like $33,483. The average lands at $42,250, below the middle of the range.
- Connecticut ranks 8 of 49 states publishing a median for cooks, short order, at $42,450 — about 18.31% 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 Connecticut, this work ranks 410 of 482 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, short order in Connecticut, on $42,450, is $34,718; deflated by the state's price level, $33,483. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $42,250 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Cooks, Short Order
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,610 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $42,450 |
| Top tenth earn over | $46,040 |
| This salary | $42,450 |
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 Connecticut | $34,718 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,289 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,860 |
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 | $40,496 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,669 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $42,450 as a midpoint for Connecticut, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,610 and the ninetieth is $46,040 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $34,718 take-home in Connecticut comes from $42,450. 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 410 of 482.
- One number stands for prices across all of Connecticut, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $33,483, the adjusted value of that $42,450 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 410 of 482 in the state.
- The Connecticut median of $42,450 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,610 to $46,040. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $34,718, from $42,450, assumes a single Connecticut 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 410 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 8 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Connecticut, so $33,483 — the adjusted value of that $42,450 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 410 of 482 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $34,610 at the tenth percentile, $46,040 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Connecticut costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $33,483 rather than its face figure.
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 Connecticut adds its own income tax on top — which is why $34,718 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($34,610 to $46,040) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Connecticut rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Connecticut's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $33,483 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 $34,718 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Connecticut 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.