Cooks, Short Order in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$22,461
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$2,859
11.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$23,114
Texas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Texas — 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
$25,320
Kept after tax
$22,461
Worth in national money
$23,114
State rank
46
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas is among the lower-paying states for cooks, short order. The middle earner takes $25,320, ranking 46 of 49 states — about 29.43% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Measured against other jobs in Texas, this one sits low: 489 of 493 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $25,320, tax leaves $22,461, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $23,114 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $27,610, since top earners drag the number up.
- Texas ranks 46 of 49 for cooks, short order, with a median of $25,320 — about 29.43% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Cooks, short order occupies position 489 of 493 in Texas'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.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for cooks, short order — median $25,320 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $22,461 retained, $23,114 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $27,610 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 | $21,850 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $25,320 |
| Top tenth earn over | $36,320 |
| This salary | $25,320 |
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 Texas | $22,461 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $22,461 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,402 |
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 | $25,320 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,762 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
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 Texas earn under $25,320 and half over. The published range runs $21,850 at the tenth percentile to $36,320 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 Texas's $22,461, worked from $25,320. 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 489 of 493.
- Two cautions on $23,114, the adjusted value of that $25,320 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Texas. 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 489 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for cooks, short order in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $21,850 to $36,320; 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 Texas take-home of $22,461, on $25,320 for work ranking 489 of 493 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 489 of 493 in the state.
- This $23,114 adjusted figure, worked from $25,320, 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 489 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 489 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $27,610, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $21,850 at the tenth percentile, $36,320 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Texas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $23,114 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $22,461 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 Texas is $27,610. 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 ($21,850 to $36,320) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Texas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Texas'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 $23,114 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Texas levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $22,461 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.