Waiters and Waitresses in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,420
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$7,950
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,479
Maine costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maine — 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
$43,370
Kept after tax
$35,420
Worth in national money
$36,479
State rank
11
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Maine is one of the better-paying states for waiters and waitresses. The middle earner takes $43,370, which ranks 11 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 23.11% above the national middle.
- Within Maine this is lower-paid work. Of 484 occupations the state publishes figures for, waiters and waitresses ranks 419. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $43,370 the take-home is $35,420, which is worth about $36,479 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $51,260, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Maine ranks 11 of 51 states publishing a median for waiters and waitresses, at $43,370 — about 23.11% 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.
- Against every occupation Maine reports, waiters and waitresses ranks 419 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.
- Maine's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for waiters and waitresses on its $43,370 median: $35,420 retained after tax becomes $36,479 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $51,260 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Waiters and Waitresses
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,490 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,370 |
| Top tenth earn over | $82,930 |
| This salary | $43,370 |
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 Maine | $35,420 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,028 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,625 |
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 | $41,369 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,965 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Maine earn less than $43,370. The published range is $30,490 up to $82,930, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Maine's $35,420, worked from $43,370. 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 419 of 484.
- Two cautions on $36,479, the adjusted value of that $43,370 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Maine. 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 419 of 484 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for waiters and waitresses in Maine the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $30,490 to $82,930. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Maine take-home of $35,420, on $43,370 for work ranking 419 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 419 of 484 in the state.
- This $36,479 adjusted figure, worked from $43,370, 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 419 of 484 in the state. The occupation ranks 419 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 $51,260, 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $30,490 and the top tenth $82,930 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Maine sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $36,479 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Maine adds its own income tax on top — which is why $35,420 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 Maine is $51,260. 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 ($30,490) and the ninetieth ($82,930) 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?
Maine'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 $36,479 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 $35,420 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.