Waiters and Waitresses in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,018
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$9,002
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,325
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$47,020
Kept after tax
$38,018
Worth in national money
$35,325
State rank
6
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- New York is one of the better-paying states for waiters and waitresses. The middle earner takes $47,020, which ranks 6 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 33.47% above the national middle.
- Within New York this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, waiters and waitresses ranks 401. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- New York is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $47,020 the take-home is $38,018; in national-average money that behaves like $35,325. The average comes to $54,750, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- New York ranks 6 of 51 states publishing a median for waiters and waitresses, at $47,020 — about 33.47% 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 New York reports, waiters and waitresses ranks 401 of 493, 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.
- Take-home for waiters and waitresses in New York, on $47,020, is $38,018; deflated by the state's price level, $35,325. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $54,750 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Waiters and Waitresses
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,540 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,020 |
| Top tenth earn over | $83,210 |
| This salary | $47,020 |
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 York | $38,018 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,961 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,798 |
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 | $44,603 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,012 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
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 York earn less than $47,020. The published range is $33,540 up to $83,210, 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 York's $38,018, worked from $47,020. 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 401 of 493.
- Two cautions on $35,325, the adjusted value of that $47,020 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New York. 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 401 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for waiters and waitresses in New York the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $33,540 to $83,210. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The New York take-home of $38,018, on $47,020 for work ranking 401 of 493 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 401 of 493 in the state.
- This $35,325 adjusted figure, worked from $47,020, 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 401 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 401 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $54,750 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $33,540 and the top tenth $83,210 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. New York costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $35,325 rather than its face figure.
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 New York adds its own income tax on top — which is why $38,018 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 New York is $54,750. 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 ($33,540) and the ninetieth ($83,210) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $35,325 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 $38,018 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.