Waiters and Waitresses in Minnesota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$22,040
after federal, FICA and Minnesota tax
Tax takes
$3,430
13.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$22,395
Minnesota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Minnesota — 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
$25,470
Kept after tax
$22,040
Worth in national money
$22,395
State rank
41
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for waiters and waitresses is on the low side in Minnesota. The middle earner gets $25,470. That is 41 of 51 states, and about 27.7% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 490 occupations Minnesota publishes, waiters and waitresses lands at 490. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $25,470, tax leaves $22,040, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $22,395 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $30,060, since top earners drag the number up.
- For waiters and waitresses, Minnesota sits in the lower band at $25,470, ranking 41 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 27.7%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Minnesota, this work ranks 490 of 490 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 Minnesota sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for waiters and waitresses — median $25,470 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $22,040 retained, $22,395 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $30,060 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Waiters and Waitresses
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $23,150 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $25,470 |
| Top tenth earn over | $41,800 |
| This salary | $25,470 |
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 Minnesota | $22,040 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $22,585 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$846 |
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 | $24,809 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$998 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Minnesota earn less than $25,470. The published range is $23,150 up to $41,800, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $22,040 take-home in Minnesota comes from $25,470. 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 490 of 490.
- Two cautions on $22,395, the adjusted value of that $25,470 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Minnesota. 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 490 of 490 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for waiters and waitresses in Minnesota the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $23,150 to $41,800. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $22,040, from $25,470, assumes a single Minnesota 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 490 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 41 of 51 for it.
- This $22,395 adjusted figure, worked from $25,470, 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 490 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 490 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $30,060, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $23,150 and the top tenth $41,800 — 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 Minnesota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $22,395 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 Minnesota's own levy, $22,040 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Minnesota is $30,060. 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 ($23,150) and the ninetieth ($41,800) 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?
Minnesota'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 $22,395 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 $22,040 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Minnesota 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.