Waiters and Waitresses in Wyoming
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$21,308
after federal, FICA and Wyoming tax
Tax takes
$2,612
10.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$23,455
Wyoming costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wyoming — 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
$23,920
Kept after tax
$21,308
Worth in national money
$23,455
State rank
43
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Wyoming pays waiters and waitresses a middle wage of $23,920, 43 of 51 states and about 32.1% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Wyoming this is lower-paid work. Of 433 occupations the state publishes figures for, waiters and waitresses ranks 431. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $23,920 you keep $21,308 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $23,455 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $31,120, since top earners drag the number up.
- Wyoming's $23,920 median for waiters and waitresses places it 43 of 51 states, about 32.1% 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 Wyoming reports, waiters and waitresses ranks 431 of 433, 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.
- Retained pay in Wyoming is $21,308 after the full tax stack, from $23,920. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $23,455 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $31,120 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 | $18,000 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $23,920 |
| Top tenth earn over | $56,260 |
| This salary | $23,920 |
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 Wyoming | $21,308 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $21,308 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,527 |
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 | $23,920 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,802 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of waiters and waitresses in Wyoming earn under $23,920 and half over. The published range runs $18,000 at the tenth percentile to $56,260 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Wyoming the take-home figure of $21,308, from $23,920, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 431 of 433 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $23,455, the adjusted value of that $23,920 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Wyoming. 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 431 of 433 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for waiters and waitresses in Wyoming, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $18,000 to $56,260; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Wyoming is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $21,308 from $23,920. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 431 of 433 locally.
- This $23,455 adjusted figure, worked from $23,920, 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 431 of 433 in the state. The occupation ranks 431 of 433 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $31,120, 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 $18,000 and the top tenth $56,260 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Wyoming is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $23,455 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $21,308 survives, because Wyoming levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 Wyoming is $31,120. 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 ($18,000) and the ninetieth ($56,260) 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?
Wyoming'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 $23,455 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Wyoming levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $21,308 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.