First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$37,613
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$8,987
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,750
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$46,600
Kept after tax
$37,613
Worth in national money
$34,750
State rank
15
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Massachusetts's middle earner gets $46,600, putting the state 15 of 51 — about 5.72% ahead of the national figure.
- Within Massachusetts this is lower-paid work. Of 485 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 404. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Massachusetts is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $46,600 the take-home is $37,613; in national-average money that behaves like $34,750. The average comes to $52,600, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers, Massachusetts sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $46,600, ranking 15 of 51 and running about 5.72% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Against every occupation Massachusetts reports, first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers ranks 404 of 485, 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 first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers in Massachusetts, on $46,600, is $37,613; deflated by the state's price level, $34,750. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $52,600 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 | $37,380 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,600 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,630 |
| This salary | $46,600 |
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 Massachusetts | $37,613 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,623 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,025 |
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 | $44,098 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,286 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $46,600 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,380 and the ninetieth is $76,630 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $37,613 take-home in Massachusetts comes from $46,600. 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 404 of 485.
- Two cautions on $34,750, the adjusted value of that $46,600 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Massachusetts. 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 404 of 485 locally.
- The Massachusetts median of $46,600 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,380 to $76,630. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $37,613, from $46,600, assumes a single Massachusetts 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 404 of 485 locally, and the state ranks 15 of 51 for it.
- This $34,750 adjusted figure, worked from $46,600, 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 404 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 404 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $52,600, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $37,380, the highest tenth $76,630, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Massachusetts costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $34,750 rather than its face figure.
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; Massachusetts then takes its own share, leaving $37,613.
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 Massachusetts is $52,600. 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 ($37,380) and the ninetieth ($76,630) 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?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $34,750 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 $37,613 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.