Cooks, Restaurant salary in Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD

The figures

The median Cooks, Restaurant in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metro area earns $37,420 a year ($17.99 an hour), according to the BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates (full citation in Sources). The middle half of Cooks, Restaurant in Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD earn between $36,330 and $42,110 a year. At the ends of the distribution, the lowest-paid 10 percent earn $35,250 or less and the top 10 percent earn $46,870 or more. BLS estimates 7,760 Cooks, Restaurant jobs in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD area — 5.719 of every 1,000 jobs in the area, a location quotient of 0.63 (well below the national concentration). That is 0.6% of all Cooks, Restaurant employment in the United States (1,409,890 jobs nationally). By employment, Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD is the #25 largest of the 25 covered metro areas for Cooks, Restaurant. In aggregate, Cooks, Restaurant in Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD earn about $0.31 billion a year (BLS employment multiplied by the mean wage). At the mean wage, the engine's take-home is $32,276.98 a year, so the aggregate take-home of Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Cooks, Restaurant is about $0.25 billion. BLS reports a relative standard error of 10.5% for this employment estimate. Ranked by median pay, Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD stands #17 of the 25 metro areas covered on this site for Cooks, Restaurant. By employment, Cooks, Restaurant is the #28 largest of the 30 covered occupations in Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD. Placed against the national distribution for Cooks, Restaurant, the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD median of $37,420 falls between the national median ($37,390) and the national 75th percentile ($44,620). Across all occupations, the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD median is $59,070 a year — Cooks, Restaurant pay is 36.7% below the area's overall median.

Wages in detail

What the wage distribution says

The top 10 percent of Cooks, Restaurant in Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD earn 1.3 times what the bottom 10 percent earn ($46,870 against $35,250). The middle half spans $5,780 — from $36,330 to $42,110. Hourly, the 90th percentile ($22.53) is 1.33 times the 10th ($16.95). In the upper half of the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD distribution, the 75th percentile wage of $42,110 takes home $34,378.64 and the 90th percentile wage of $46,870 takes home $37,977.22 — $3,598.58 more net for $4,760 more gross. Against the median take-home of $30,833.16, the top decile keeps 1.23 times as much. The mean wage of $39,330 sits 5.1% above the median: higher-paid Cooks, Restaurant pull the average up in Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD. Among the 30 covered occupations in Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD, Cooks, Restaurant ranks #24 by median pay. In the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD wage ladder of covered occupations, Cooks, Restaurant sits between Home Health and Personal Care Aides at $37,640 and Security Guards at $36,970. Cooks, Restaurant accounts for 0.6% of all employment in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metro area. The average covered metro employs 24,720 Cooks, Restaurant; Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD employs 0.3 times that.

Take-home pay on the median wage in Maryland

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

At the median, $30,833.16 of the $37,420 gross is kept ($1,185.89 per paycheck) — a deduction rate of 17.60%. The deduction rate moves with pay: 17.18% at the 10th percentile, 17.40% at the 25th percentile, 18.36% at the 75th percentile, 18.97% at the 90th percentile. Between the 25th and 75th percentile wages, annual take-home rises by $4,369.50 on a gross rise of $5,780.

The same engine at the other published points of the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD wage distribution:

Across the published distribution, take-home pay runs from $29,192.52 a year at the 10th percentile to $37,977.22 at the 90th — a spread of $8,784.70 of net pay inside one occupation and one metro area.

For scale: across all occupations, the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD median wage of $59,070 takes home $47,200.74 a year ($1,815.41 per paycheck, deduction rate 20.09%). The Cooks, Restaurant median take-home of $30,833.16 sits $16,367.58 (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 $37,420 in Maryland

Against the national median

Nationally, the median Cooks, Restaurant earns $37,390 a year ($17.98 an hour). The Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD median of $37,420 is $30 (0.1%) above the national median.

The means rank the area the same way: $39,330 a year in Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD against $38,730 nationally, a gap of $600 (1.5%).

Set against the whole local market, the Cooks, Restaurant 90th percentile of $46,870 is 34% of the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD all-occupations 90th percentile ($138,650), and its 10th percentile of $35,250 is 103% of the area-wide 10th ($34,230).

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.