Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers in Florida
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$28,920
after federal, FICA and Florida tax
Tax takes
$4,360
13.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$27,955
Florida costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Florida — 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
$33,280
Kept after tax
$28,920
Worth in national money
$27,955
State rank
15
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Florida pays this job a middle wage of $33,280, ranking 15 of 51 states and sitting about 2.06% above the national middle.
- Within Florida this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 476. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Florida is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $33,280 the take-home is $28,920; in national-average money that behaves like $27,955. The average comes to $35,130, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Florida's median for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers is $33,280, about 2.06% above the national figure and 15 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Against every occupation Florida reports, dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers ranks 476 of 493, 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 dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers in Florida, on $33,280, is $28,920; deflated by the state's price level, $27,955. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $35,130 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $27,590 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $33,280 |
| Top tenth earn over | $45,460 |
| This salary | $33,280 |
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 Florida | $28,920 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $28,920 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,806 |
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 | $33,280 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,184 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 103 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $33,280 as a midpoint for Florida, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $27,590 and the ninetieth is $45,460 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Florida's $28,920, worked from $33,280. 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 476 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $27,955 uses one figure for the whole of Florida. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 476.
- The Florida median of $33,280 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $27,590 to $45,460. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Florida take-home of $28,920, on $33,280 for work ranking 476 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 476 of 493 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $27,955, worked from $33,280, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Florida address, on work sitting at 476 of 493 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 $35,130, 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 $27,590 and the top tenth $45,460, so most people doing this work in Florida sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Florida costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $27,955 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $28,920 of this wage reaches your account, because Florida takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 Florida is $35,130. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($27,590 to $45,460) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Florida rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Florida's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $27,955 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Florida levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $28,920 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.