Cooks, Short Order in Ohio
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$25,625
after federal, FICA and Ohio tax
Tax takes
$3,665
12.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$27,911
Ohio costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Ohio — 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
$29,290
Kept after tax
$25,625
Worth in national money
$27,911
State rank
39
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for cooks, short order is on the low side in Ohio. The middle earner gets $29,290. That is 39 of 49 states, and about 18.37% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 494 occupations Ohio publishes, cooks, short order lands at 484. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $29,290 you keep $25,625 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $27,911 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $30,280, since top earners drag the number up.
- For cooks, short order, Ohio sits in the lower band at $29,290, ranking 39 of 49 and trailing the national median by about 18.37%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Ohio, this work ranks 484 of 494 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.
- Retained pay in Ohio is $25,625 after the full tax stack, from $29,290. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $27,911 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $30,280 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 | $22,260 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $29,290 |
| Top tenth earn over | $38,620 |
| This salary | $29,290 |
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 Ohio | $25,625 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $25,715 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,449 |
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 | $29,179 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,752 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $29,290 as a midpoint for Ohio, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $22,260 and the ninetieth is $38,620 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Ohio the take-home figure of $25,625, from $29,290, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 484 of 494 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Ohio, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $27,911, the adjusted value of that $29,290 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 484 of 494 in the state.
- The Ohio median of $29,290 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $22,260 to $38,620. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Ohio is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $25,625 from $29,290. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 484 of 494 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Ohio, so $27,911 — the adjusted value of that $29,290 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 484 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $30,280, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $22,260 at the tenth percentile, $38,620 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Ohio sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $27,911 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Ohio adds its own income tax on top — which is why $25,625 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.
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 Ohio is $30,280. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($22,260 to $38,620) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Ohio rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Ohio'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 $27,911 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 $25,625 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Ohio 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.