Food Servers, Nonrestaurant in North Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,712
after federal, FICA and North Carolina tax
Tax takes
$4,748
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,375
North Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Carolina — 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
$31,460
Kept after tax
$26,712
Worth in national money
$28,375
State rank
38
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. North Carolina pays food servers, nonrestaurant a middle wage of $31,460, 38 of 51 states and about 11.03% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within North Carolina this is lower-paid work. Of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, food servers, nonrestaurant ranks 468. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- North Carolina is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $31,460 the take-home is $26,712; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $28,375 would nationally. The average comes to $33,150, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- North Carolina's $31,460 median for food servers, nonrestaurant places it 38 of 51 states, about 11.03% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation North Carolina reports, food servers, nonrestaurant ranks 468 of 489, 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.
- Post-tax income for food servers, nonrestaurant in North Carolina, on $31,460, is $26,712 — equivalent to $28,375 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 $33,150 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Food Servers, Nonrestaurant
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $23,760 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $31,460 |
| Top tenth earn over | $40,110 |
| This salary | $31,460 |
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 North Carolina | $26,712 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,458 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$118 |
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 | $30,531 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$143 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $31,460 as a midpoint for North Carolina, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $23,760 and the ninetieth is $40,110 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind North Carolina's $26,712, worked from $31,460. 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 468 of 489.
- Two cautions on $28,375, the adjusted value of that $31,460 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of North Carolina. 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 468 of 489 locally.
- The North Carolina median of $31,460 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $23,760 to $40,110. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The North Carolina take-home of $26,712, on $31,460 for work ranking 468 of 489 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 468 of 489 in the state.
- This $28,375 adjusted figure, worked from $31,460, 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 468 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 468 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $33,150, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $23,760 and the top tenth $40,110, so most people doing this work in North Carolina sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $28,375.
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 North Carolina adds its own income tax on top — which is why $26,712 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 North Carolina is $33,150. 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 ($23,760 to $40,110) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to North Carolina rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
North Carolina'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 $28,375 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 $26,712 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Carolina 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.