Cooks, Short Order in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,191
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$6,529
16.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,401
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$40,720
Kept after tax
$34,191
Worth in national money
$31,401
State rank
10
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- New Jersey is one of the better-paying states for cooks, short order. The middle earner takes $40,720, which ranks 10 of 49 states with published figures. That is about 13.49% above the national middle.
- Within New Jersey this is lower-paid work. Of 490 occupations the state publishes figures for, cooks, short order ranks 428. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- New Jersey is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $40,720 the take-home is $34,191; in national-average money that behaves like $31,401. The average comes to $41,380, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- New Jersey ranks 10 of 49 states publishing a median for cooks, short order, at $40,720 — about 13.49% 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.
- Against every occupation New Jersey reports, cooks, short order ranks 428 of 490, 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.
- Take-home for cooks, short order in New Jersey, on $40,720, is $34,191; deflated by the state's price level, $31,401. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $41,380 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Cooks, Short Order
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,540 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,720 |
| Top tenth earn over | $51,440 |
| This salary | $40,720 |
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 New Jersey | $34,191 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,899 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,512 |
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 | $39,839 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,456 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $40,720 as a midpoint for New Jersey, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $33,540 and the ninetieth is $51,440 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $34,191 take-home in New Jersey comes from $40,720. 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 428 of 490.
- Two cautions on $31,401, the adjusted value of that $40,720 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Jersey. 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 428 of 490 locally.
- The New Jersey median of $40,720 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $33,540 to $51,440. 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 $34,191, from $40,720, assumes a single New Jersey 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 428 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 10 of 49 for it.
- This $31,401 adjusted figure, worked from $40,720, 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 428 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 428 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $33,540 at the tenth percentile, $51,440 at the ninetieth.
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 $31,401 of national purchasing power.
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 New Jersey's own levy, $34,191 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($33,540 to $51,440) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Jersey rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $31,401 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 $34,191 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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.