Cooks, Short Order in Idaho
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,121
after federal, FICA and Idaho tax
Tax takes
$6,969
17.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,227
Idaho costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Idaho — 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
$40,090
Kept after tax
$33,121
Worth in national money
$36,227
State rank
11
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for cooks, short order is strong here. Idaho's middle earner gets $40,090, putting the state 11 of 49 — about 11.73% ahead of the national figure.
- Within Idaho this is lower-paid work. Of 476 occupations the state publishes figures for, cooks, short order ranks 387. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where Idaho does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $40,090 you keep $33,121, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $36,227 would elsewhere. The average is lower, $39,740, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- For cooks, short order, Idaho sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $40,090, ranking 11 of 49 and running about 11.73% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Against every occupation Idaho reports, cooks, short order ranks 387 of 476, 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 Idaho income tax, retained pay for cooks, short order on $40,090 is $33,121. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $36,227 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 $39,740 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
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Pay band: Cooks, Short Order
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $23,130 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,090 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,190 |
| This salary | $40,090 |
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 Idaho | $33,121 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,392 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$835 |
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 | $38,508 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,010 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $40,090 as a midpoint for Idaho, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $23,130 and the ninetieth is $61,190 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $33,121 take-home in Idaho comes from $40,090. 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 387 of 476.
- Two cautions on $36,227, the adjusted value of that $40,090 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Idaho. 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 387 of 476 locally.
- The Idaho median of $40,090 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $23,130 to $61,190. 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 $33,121, from $40,090, assumes a single Idaho 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 387 of 476 locally, and the state ranks 11 of 49 for it.
- This $36,227 adjusted figure, worked from $40,090, 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 387 of 476 in the state. The occupation ranks 387 of 476 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $23,130, the highest tenth $61,190, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $36,227.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Idaho's own levy, $33,121 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($23,130) and the ninetieth ($61,190) 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?
Idaho'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 $36,227 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 $33,121 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Idaho 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.