Cooks, Short Order in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$17,395
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$2,515
12.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$17,841
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$19,910
Kept after tax
$17,395
Worth in national money
$17,841
State rank
49
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for cooks, short order is on the low side in Pennsylvania. The middle earner gets $19,910. That is 49 of 49 states, and about 44.51% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes, cooks, short order lands at 492. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $19,910, tax leaves $17,395, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $17,841 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $25,130, since top earners drag the number up.
- For cooks, short order, Pennsylvania sits in the lower band at $19,910, ranking 49 of 49 and trailing the national median by about 44.51%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Pennsylvania, this work ranks 492 of 492 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.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for cooks, short order — median $19,910 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $17,395 retained, $17,841 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $25,130 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 | $17,150 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $19,910 |
| Top tenth earn over | $40,460 |
| This salary | $19,910 |
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 Pennsylvania | $17,395 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $18,006 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$689 |
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 | $19,168 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$813 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $19,910 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $17,150 and the ninetieth is $40,460 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Pennsylvania the take-home figure of $17,395, from $19,910, 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 492 of 492 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $17,841, the adjusted value of that $19,910 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Pennsylvania. 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 492 of 492 locally.
- The Pennsylvania median of $19,910 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $17,150 to $40,460. 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 Pennsylvania is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $17,395 from $19,910. 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 492 of 492 locally.
- This $17,841 adjusted figure, worked from $19,910, 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 492 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 492 of 492 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 $25,130 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $17,150 at the bottom tenth to $40,460 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Pennsylvania is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $17,841 in national terms.
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 Pennsylvania's own levy, $17,395 remains.
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 Pennsylvania is $25,130. 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 ($17,150) and the ninetieth ($40,460) 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?
Pennsylvania'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 $17,841 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 $17,395 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.