Cooks, Restaurant salary in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA

The figures

The median Cooks, Restaurant in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA metro area earns $37,230 a year ($17.90 an hour), according to the BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates (full citation in Sources). The middle half of Cooks, Restaurant in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA earn between $30,680 and $38,420 a year. At the ends of the distribution, the lowest-paid 10 percent earn $27,370 or less and the top 10 percent earn $43,690 or more. BLS estimates 29,040 Cooks, Restaurant jobs in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA area — 10.051 of every 1,000 jobs in the area, a location quotient of 1.11 (above the national concentration). That is 2.1% of all Cooks, Restaurant employment in the United States (1,409,890 jobs nationally). By employment, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA is the #8 largest of the 25 covered metro areas for Cooks, Restaurant. In aggregate, Cooks, Restaurant in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA earn about $1.04 billion a year (BLS employment multiplied by the mean wage). At the mean wage, the engine's take-home is $29,892.56 a year, so the aggregate take-home of Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Cooks, Restaurant is about $0.87 billion. BLS reports a relative standard error of 8.8% for this employment estimate. Ranked by median pay, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA stands #19 of the 25 metro areas covered on this site for Cooks, Restaurant. By employment, Cooks, Restaurant is the #18 largest of the 30 covered occupations in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA. Placed against the national distribution for Cooks, Restaurant, the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA median of $37,230 falls between the national 25th percentile ($34,010) and the national median ($37,390). Across all occupations, the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA median is $51,170 a year — Cooks, Restaurant pay is 27.2% below the area's overall median.

Wages in detail

What the wage distribution says

The top 10 percent of Cooks, Restaurant in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA earn 1.6 times what the bottom 10 percent earn ($43,690 against $27,370). The middle half spans $7,740 — from $30,680 to $38,420. Hourly, the 90th percentile ($21.01) is 1.60 times the 10th ($13.16). In the upper half of the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA distribution, the 75th percentile wage of $38,420 takes home $31,881.52 and the 90th percentile wage of $43,690 takes home $35,853.34 — $3,971.82 more net for $5,270 more gross. Against the median take-home of $30,985.32, the top decile keeps 1.16 times as much. The mean wage of $35,780 sits 3.9% below the median: the average is held down by the lower end of the distribution in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA. Among the 30 covered occupations in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA, Cooks, Restaurant ranks #22 by median pay. In the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA wage ladder of covered occupations, Cooks, Restaurant sits between Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators at $38,960 and Stockers and Order Fillers at $36,160. Cooks, Restaurant accounts for 1.0% of all employment in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA metro area. The average covered metro employs 24,720 Cooks, Restaurant; Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA employs 1.2 times that.

Take-home pay on the median wage in Georgia

Single filer, no dependents, no pre-tax contributions, paid biweekly, a full year of W-2 wages in Georgia; city and local taxes are not included:

At the median, $30,985.32 of the $37,230 gross is kept ($1,191.74 per paycheck) — a deduction rate of 16.77%. The deduction rate moves with pay: 14.02% at the 10th percentile, 15.09% at the 25th percentile, 17.02% at the 75th percentile, 17.94% at the 90th percentile. Between the 25th and 75th percentile wages, annual take-home rises by $5,832.38 on a gross rise of $7,740.

The same engine at the other published points of the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA wage distribution:

Across the published distribution, take-home pay runs from $23,531.88 a year at the 10th percentile to $35,853.34 at the 90th — a spread of $12,321.46 of net pay inside one occupation and one metro area.

For scale: across all occupations, the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA median wage of $51,170 takes home $41,490.20 a year ($1,595.78 per paycheck, deduction rate 18.92%). The Cooks, Restaurant median take-home of $30,985.32 sits $10,504.88 (below that area-wide figure.

Run your own numbers

Your own withholding depends on your Form W-4, your benefits and your other income — run your exact figures through the calculator:

Take-home pay for $37,230 in Georgia

Against the national median

Nationally, the median Cooks, Restaurant earns $37,390 a year ($17.98 an hour). The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA median of $37,230 is $160 (0.4%) below the national median.

The means rank the area the same way: $35,780 a year in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA against $38,730 nationally, a gap of $2,950 (7.6%).

Set against the whole local market, the Cooks, Restaurant 90th percentile of $43,690 is 33% of the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA all-occupations 90th percentile ($132,230), and its 10th percentile of $27,370 is 94% of the area-wide 10th ($29,110).

Sources and method

Wage data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates (released May 15, 2026), retrieved October 27, 2026 — bls.gov/oes. OEWS figures are survey estimates for May 2025, not job offers. Take-home pay is computed by this site's paycheck engine with 2026 federal and state rules; the method, and what the engine does not model, is documented in the paycheck methodology guide. Estimates only — not tax advice.