Cooks, Short Order in New Hampshire
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$28,157
after federal, FICA and New Hampshire tax
Tax takes
$4,173
12.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,729
New Hampshire costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Hampshire — 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
$32,330
Kept after tax
$28,157
Worth in national money
$26,729
State rank
30
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- New Hampshire sits in the middle of the pack for cooks, short order. The median is $32,330, ranking 30 of 49 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Measured against other jobs in New Hampshire, this one sits low: 478 of 488 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $32,330, tax leaves $28,157 — and because New Hampshire is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $26,729 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $33,740, since top earners drag the number up.
- New Hampshire occupies the middle band for cooks, short order: a median of $32,330, ranking 30 of 49. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Cooks, short order occupies position 478 of 488 in New Hampshire's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- After tax, $28,157 remains from the New Hampshire median of $32,330 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $26,729 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $33,740 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Cooks, Short Order
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $24,140 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $32,330 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,020 |
| This salary | $32,330 |
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 Hampshire | $28,157 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $28,157 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,247 |
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 | $32,330 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,718 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 105 |
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 New Hampshire earn under $32,330 and half over. The published range runs $24,140 at the tenth percentile to $49,020 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 New Hampshire's $28,157, worked from $32,330. 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 478 of 488.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $26,729 uses one figure for the whole of New Hampshire. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 478.
- Figures are distribution medians for cooks, short order in New Hampshire, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $24,140 to $49,020; 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 New Hampshire take-home of $28,157, on $32,330 for work ranking 478 of 488 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 478 of 488 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $26,729, worked from $32,330, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular New Hampshire address, on work sitting at 478 of 488 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 $33,740 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $24,140, the highest tenth $49,020, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $26,729 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $28,157 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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.
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 New Hampshire is $33,740. 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 ($24,140) and the ninetieth ($49,020) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New Hampshire's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $26,729 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
New Hampshire levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $28,157 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.