Cooks, Short Order in Georgia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$22,995
after federal, FICA and Georgia tax
Tax takes
$3,875
14.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$23,780
Georgia costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Georgia — 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
$26,870
Kept after tax
$22,995
Worth in national money
$23,780
State rank
44
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for cooks, short order is on the low side in Georgia. The middle earner gets $26,870. That is 44 of 49 states, and about 25.11% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 492 occupations Georgia publishes, cooks, short order lands at 487. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Georgia is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $26,870 the take-home is $22,995; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $23,780 would nationally. The average comes to $29,370, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For cooks, short order, Georgia sits in the lower band at $26,870, ranking 44 of 49 and trailing the national median by about 25.11%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Georgia, this work ranks 487 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, short order in Georgia, on $26,870, is $22,995 — equivalent to $23,780 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 $29,370 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Cooks, Short Order
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $21,430 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $26,870 |
| Top tenth earn over | $41,010 |
| This salary | $26,870 |
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 Georgia | $22,995 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $23,737 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$647 |
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 | $25,969 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$764 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of cooks, short order in Georgia earn under $26,870 and half over. The published range runs $21,430 at the tenth percentile to $41,010 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Georgia's $22,995, worked from $26,870. 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 487 of 492.
- Two cautions on $23,780, the adjusted value of that $26,870 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Georgia. 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 487 of 492 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for cooks, short order in Georgia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $21,430 to $41,010; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Georgia take-home of $22,995, on $26,870 for work ranking 487 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 487 of 492 in the state.
- This $23,780 adjusted figure, worked from $26,870, 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 487 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 487 of 492 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 $29,370 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $21,430 and the top tenth $41,010 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $23,780.
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 Georgia adds its own income tax on top — which is why $22,995 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Georgia is $29,370. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($21,430) and the ninetieth ($41,010) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Georgia'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 $23,780 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 $22,995 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Georgia 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.