Food Preparation Workers in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$28,729
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$5,341
15.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,859
Wisconsin costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wisconsin — 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
$34,070
Kept after tax
$28,729
Worth in national money
$30,859
State rank
28
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Wisconsin pays food preparation workers around $34,070 at the midpoint, 28 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 491 occupations Wisconsin publishes, food preparation workers lands at 468. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Wisconsin is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $34,070 the take-home is $28,729; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $30,859 would nationally. The average lands at $34,000, below the middle of the range.
- For food preparation workers the Wisconsin median is $34,070, ranking 28 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 Wisconsin, this work ranks 468 of 491 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.
- Post-tax income for food preparation workers in Wisconsin, on $34,070, is $28,729 — equivalent to $30,859 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $34,000 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Food Preparation Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $26,080 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $34,070 |
| Top tenth earn over | $44,290 |
| This salary | $34,070 |
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 Wisconsin | $28,729 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $29,555 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$445 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $33,042 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$538 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $34,070 as a midpoint for Wisconsin, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $26,080 and the ninetieth is $44,290 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $28,729 take-home in Wisconsin comes from $34,070. 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 468 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Wisconsin, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $30,859, the adjusted value of that $34,070 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 468 of 491 in the state.
- The Wisconsin median of $34,070 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $26,080 to $44,290. 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 $28,729, from $34,070, assumes a single Wisconsin 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 468 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 28 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Wisconsin, so $30,859 — the adjusted value of that $34,070 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 468 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $26,080 at the tenth percentile, $44,290 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 $30,859.
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 Wisconsin adds its own income tax on top — which is why $28,729 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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($26,080 to $44,290) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Wisconsin rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Wisconsin'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 $30,859 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 $28,729 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Wisconsin 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.