Waiters and Waitresses in Louisiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$13,860
after federal, FICA and Louisiana tax
Tax takes
$1,220
8.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$15,689
Louisiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the bottom tenth percentile for this work in Louisiana — 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
$15,080
Kept after tax
$13,860
Worth in national money
$15,689
State rank
51
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Louisiana pays waiters and waitresses a middle wage of $15,080, 51 of 51 states and about 57.2% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Louisiana this is lower-paid work. Of 484 occupations the state publishes figures for, waiters and waitresses ranks 484. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where Louisiana does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $15,080 you keep $13,860, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $15,689 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $22,350, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Louisiana's $15,080 median for waiters and waitresses places it 51 of 51 states, about 57.2% 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 Louisiana reports, waiters and waitresses ranks 484 of 484, 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.
- After federal, FICA and Louisiana income tax, retained pay for waiters and waitresses on $15,080 is $13,860. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $15,689 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $22,350 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Waiters and Waitresses
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $15,080 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $15,080 |
| Top tenth earn over | $38,060 |
| This salary | $15,080 |
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 Louisiana | $13,860 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $13,926 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,358 |
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 | $15,008 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,478 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $15,080 as a midpoint for Louisiana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $15,080 and the ninetieth is $38,060 — 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 Louisiana's $13,860, worked from $15,080. 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 484 of 484.
- Two cautions on $15,689, the adjusted value of that $15,080 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Louisiana. 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 484 of 484 locally.
- The Louisiana median of $15,080 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $15,080 to $38,060. 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 Louisiana take-home of $13,860, on $15,080 for work ranking 484 of 484 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 484 of 484 in the state.
- This $15,689 adjusted figure, worked from $15,080, 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 484 of 484 in the state. The occupation ranks 484 of 484 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 $22,350, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $15,080 at the bottom tenth to $38,060 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Louisiana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $15,689 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Louisiana's own levy, $13,860 remains.
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 Louisiana is $22,350. 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 ($15,080) and the ninetieth ($38,060) 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?
Louisiana'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 $15,689 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 $13,860 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Louisiana 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.