First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,449
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$7,601
17.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,358
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$43,050
Kept after tax
$35,449
Worth in national money
$36,358
State rank
25
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Pennsylvania pays this job around $43,050 at the midpoint, 25 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes, this job lands at 398. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $43,050, tax leaves $35,449, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $36,358 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $44,550, since top earners drag the number up.
- For first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers the Pennsylvania median is $43,050, ranking 25 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 Pennsylvania, this work ranks 398 of 492 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 Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers — median $43,050 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $35,449 retained, $36,358 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $44,550 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 | $29,530 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,050 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,780 |
| This salary | $43,050 |
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 Pennsylvania | $35,449 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,771 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,482 |
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 | $41,405 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,792 |
| 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 first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers in Pennsylvania earn under $43,050 and half over. The published range runs $29,530 at the tenth percentile to $61,780 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Pennsylvania's $35,449, worked from $43,050. 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 398 of 492.
- Two cautions on $36,358, the adjusted value of that $43,050 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Pennsylvania. 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 398 of 492 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers in Pennsylvania, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $29,530 to $61,780; 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.
- The Pennsylvania take-home of $35,449, on $43,050 for work ranking 398 of 492 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 398 of 492 in the state.
- This $36,358 adjusted figure, worked from $43,050, 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 398 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 398 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $44,550, 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 $29,530, the highest tenth $61,780, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $36,358.
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 Pennsylvania adds its own income tax on top — which is why $35,449 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 Pennsylvania is $44,550. 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 ($29,530) and the ninetieth ($61,780) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Pennsylvania'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 $36,358 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 $35,449 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.