Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,499
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$4,701
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,130
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the bottom tenth percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$31,200
Kept after tax
$26,499
Worth in national money
$26,130
State rank
20
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Rhode Island sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $31,200, ranking 20 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Measured against other jobs in Rhode Island, this one sits low: 451 of 452 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $31,200, tax leaves $26,499, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $26,130 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $35,170, since top earners drag the number up.
- Rhode Island occupies the middle band for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers: a median of $31,200, ranking 20 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers occupies position 451 of 452 in Rhode Island'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 Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers — median $31,200 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $26,499 retained, $26,130 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $35,170 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $31,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $31,200 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,170 |
| This salary | $31,200 |
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 Rhode Island | $26,499 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,249 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,911 |
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 | $30,267 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,311 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Rhode Island earn less than $31,200. The published range is $31,200 up to $47,170, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Rhode Island the take-home figure of $26,499, from $31,200, 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 451 of 452 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $26,130, the adjusted value of that $31,200 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Rhode Island. 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 451 of 452 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers in Rhode Island the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $31,200 to $47,170. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Rhode Island is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $26,499 from $31,200. 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 451 of 452 locally.
- This $26,130 adjusted figure, worked from $31,200, 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 451 of 452 in the state. The occupation ranks 451 of 452 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 $35,170 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $31,200 at the bottom tenth to $47,170 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $26,130 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Rhode Island then takes its own share, leaving $26,499.
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 Rhode Island is $35,170. 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 ($31,200 to $47,170) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $26,130 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $26,499 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.