Waiters and Waitresses in New Mexico
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,225
after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax
Tax takes
$5,695
15.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,546
New Mexico costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Mexico — 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
$36,920
Kept after tax
$31,225
Worth in national money
$34,546
State rank
16
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for waiters and waitresses is strong here. New Mexico's middle earner gets $36,920, putting the state 16 of 51 — about 4.8% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 485 occupations New Mexico publishes, waiters and waitresses lands at 415. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $36,920 you keep $31,225 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $34,546 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $43,210, since top earners drag the number up.
- For waiters and waitresses, New Mexico sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $36,920, ranking 16 of 51 and running about 4.8% 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 New Mexico, this work ranks 415 of 485 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.
- Retained pay in New Mexico is $31,225 after the full tax stack, from $36,920. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $34,546 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $43,210 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $26,670 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,920 |
| Top tenth earn over | $69,410 |
| This salary | $36,920 |
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 New Mexico | $31,225 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,845 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,775 |
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 | $36,148 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,147 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in New Mexico earn less than $36,920. The published range is $26,670 up to $69,410, 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 New Mexico's $31,225, worked from $36,920. 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 415 of 485.
- Two cautions on $34,546, the adjusted value of that $36,920 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Mexico. 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 415 of 485 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for waiters and waitresses in New Mexico the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $26,670 to $69,410. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The New Mexico take-home of $31,225, on $36,920 for work ranking 415 of 485 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 415 of 485 in the state.
- This $34,546 adjusted figure, worked from $36,920, 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 415 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 415 of 485 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 $43,210, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $26,670, the highest tenth $69,410, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $34,546.
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; New Mexico then takes its own share, leaving $31,225.
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 New Mexico is $43,210. 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 ($26,670) and the ninetieth ($69,410) 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?
New Mexico'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 $34,546 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 $31,225 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Mexico 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.