Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,652
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$4,748
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,281
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$31,400
Kept after tax
$26,652
Worth in national money
$26,281
State rank
15
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Rhode Island's middle earner gets $31,400, putting the state 15 of 51 — about 0.64% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 452 occupations Rhode Island publishes, this job lands at 447. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $31,400, tax leaves $26,652, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $26,281 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $34,330, since top earners drag the number up.
- For hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop, Rhode Island sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $31,400, ranking 15 of 51 and running about 0.64% 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.
- Within Rhode Island, this work ranks 447 of 452 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 Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop — median $31,400 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $26,652 retained, $26,281 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $34,330 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 | $31,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $31,400 |
| Top tenth earn over | $46,690 |
| This salary | $31,400 |
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 Rhode Island | $26,652 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,410 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,925 |
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 | $30,457 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,329 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $31,400 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $31,200 and the ninetieth is $46,690 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Rhode Island the take-home figure of $26,652, from $31,400, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 447 of 452 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $26,281, the adjusted value of that $31,400 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Rhode Island. 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 447 of 452 locally.
- The Rhode Island median of $31,400 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $31,200 to $46,690. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Rhode Island is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $26,652 from $31,400. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 447 of 452 locally.
- This $26,281 adjusted figure, worked from $31,400, 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 447 of 452 in the state. The occupation ranks 447 of 452 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 $34,330, 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?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $31,200 at the tenth percentile, $46,690 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Rhode Island run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $26,281 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $26,652 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 Rhode Island is $34,330. 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 ($31,200 to $46,690) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $26,281 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 $26,652 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.