Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,628
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$5,112
14.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,304
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$34,740
Kept after tax
$29,628
Worth in national money
$29,304
State rank
11
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Arizona is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $34,740, which ranks 11 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 11.35% above the national middle.
- Against 491 occupations Arizona publishes, this job lands at 482. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $34,740, tax leaves $29,628, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $29,304 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $37,960, since top earners drag the number up.
- Arizona ranks 11 of 51 states publishing a median for hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop, at $34,740 — about 11.35% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Within Arizona, this work ranks 482 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.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop — median $34,740 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $29,628 retained, $29,304 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $37,960 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,710 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $34,740 |
| Top tenth earn over | $46,850 |
| This salary | $34,740 |
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 Arizona | $29,628 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,094 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,665 |
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 | $34,160 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,013 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $34,740 as a midpoint for Arizona, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $30,710 and the ninetieth is $46,850 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $29,628 take-home in Arizona comes from $34,740. 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 482 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Arizona, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $29,304, the adjusted value of that $34,740 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 482 of 491 in the state.
- The Arizona median of $34,740 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $30,710 to $46,850. 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 $29,628, from $34,740, assumes a single Arizona 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 482 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 11 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Arizona, so $29,304 — the adjusted value of that $34,740 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 482 of 491 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 $37,960 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $30,710 and the top tenth $46,850, so most people doing this work in Arizona sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Arizona costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $29,304 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; Arizona then takes its own share, leaving $29,628.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 Arizona is $37,960. 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 ($30,710 to $46,850) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arizona rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $29,304 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 $29,628 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.