Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers in Minnesota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$24,906
after federal, FICA and Minnesota tax
Tax takes
$4,304
14.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$25,307
Minnesota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Minnesota — 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
$29,210
Kept after tax
$24,906
Worth in national money
$25,307
State rank
29
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Minnesota pays this job around $29,210 at the midpoint, 29 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 490 occupations Minnesota publishes, this job lands at 488. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $29,210, tax leaves $24,906, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $25,307 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $30,730, since top earners drag the number up.
- For dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers the Minnesota median is $29,210, ranking 29 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Minnesota, this work ranks 488 of 490 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 Minnesota sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers — median $29,210 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $24,906 retained, $25,307 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $30,730 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $23,350 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $29,210 |
| Top tenth earn over | $38,310 |
| This salary | $29,210 |
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 Minnesota | $24,906 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $25,650 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,089 |
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 | $28,289 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,303 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
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 dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers in Minnesota earn under $29,210 and half over. The published range runs $23,350 at the tenth percentile to $38,310 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $24,906 take-home in Minnesota comes from $29,210. 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 488 of 490.
- One number stands for prices across all of Minnesota, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $25,307, the adjusted value of that $29,210 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 488 of 490 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers in Minnesota, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $23,350 to $38,310; 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.
- Retained pay of $24,906, from $29,210, assumes a single Minnesota 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 488 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 29 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Minnesota, so $25,307 — the adjusted value of that $29,210 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 488 of 490 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 $30,730 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $23,350 at the tenth percentile, $38,310 at the ninetieth.
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 $25,307.
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 Minnesota's own levy, $24,906 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Minnesota is $30,730. 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 ($23,350 to $38,310) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Minnesota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Minnesota'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 $25,307 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 $24,906 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Minnesota 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.
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.