Cooks, Short Order in Oklahoma
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,327
after federal, FICA and Oklahoma tax
Tax takes
$5,803
16.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,218
Oklahoma costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Oklahoma — 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
$35,130
Kept after tax
$29,327
Worth in national money
$33,218
State rank
24
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Oklahoma is 24 of 49 states for cooks, short order, with a middle wage of $35,130. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within Oklahoma this is lower-paid work. Of 492 occupations the state publishes figures for, cooks, short order ranks 431. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where Oklahoma does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $35,130 you keep $29,327, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $33,218 would elsewhere. The average is lower, $32,860, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- Oklahoma ranks 24 of 49 for cooks, short order at $35,130. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation Oklahoma reports, cooks, short order ranks 431 of 492, 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 Oklahoma income tax, retained pay for cooks, short order on $35,130 is $29,327. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $33,218 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 $32,860 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Cooks, Short Order
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $25,290 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,130 |
| Top tenth earn over | $36,270 |
| This salary | $35,130 |
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 Oklahoma | $29,327 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,407 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,927 |
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 | $33,785 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,330 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $35,130 as a midpoint for Oklahoma, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $25,290 and the ninetieth is $36,270 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $29,327 take-home in Oklahoma comes from $35,130. 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 431 of 492.
- Two cautions on $33,218, the adjusted value of that $35,130 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Oklahoma. 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 431 of 492 locally.
- The Oklahoma median of $35,130 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $25,290 to $36,270. 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 $29,327, from $35,130, assumes a single Oklahoma 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 431 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 24 of 49 for it.
- This $33,218 adjusted figure, worked from $35,130, 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 431 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 431 of 492 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 $32,860, 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?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $25,290 and the top tenth $36,270, so most people doing this work in Oklahoma sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $33,218.
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 Oklahoma adds its own income tax on top — which is why $29,327 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 Oklahoma is $32,860. 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 ($25,290 to $36,270) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Oklahoma rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Oklahoma'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 $33,218 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 $29,327 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Oklahoma 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.