First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,169
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$9,711
19.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,065
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$48,880
Kept after tax
$39,169
Worth in national money
$36,065
State rank
7
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Hawaii pays this job a middle wage of $48,880, ranking 7 of 51 states and sitting about 10.89% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 326 among 437 occupations Hawaii publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $48,880, tax leaves $39,169 — and because Hawaii is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $36,065 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $54,400, since top earners drag the number up.
- Hawaii's median for first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers is $48,880, about 10.89% above the national figure and 7 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.
- Position 326 of 437 in Hawaii places first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After tax, $39,169 remains from the Hawaii median of $48,880 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $36,065 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $54,400 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,530 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $78,730 |
| This salary | $48,880 |
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 Hawaii | $39,169 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,455 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,596 |
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 | $46,035 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,977 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Hawaii earn less than $48,880. The published range is $37,530 up to $78,730, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Hawaii's $39,169, worked from $48,880. 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 326 of 437.
- One number stands for prices across all of Hawaii, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $36,065, the adjusted value of that $48,880 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 326 of 437 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers in Hawaii the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $37,530 to $78,730. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Hawaii take-home of $39,169, on $48,880 for work ranking 326 of 437 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 326 of 437 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Hawaii, so $36,065 — the adjusted value of that $48,880 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 326 of 437 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 $54,400 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $37,530 and the top tenth $78,730 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $36,065 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Hawaii adds its own income tax on top — which is why $39,169 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Hawaii is $54,400. 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 ($37,530) and the ninetieth ($78,730) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $36,065 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 $39,169 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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.