Cooks, Restaurant salary in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH

The figures

The median Cooks, Restaurant in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area earns $45,830 a year ($22.03 an hour), according to the BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates (full citation in Sources). The middle half of Cooks, Restaurant in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH earn between $39,400 and $49,390 a year. At the ends of the distribution, the lowest-paid 10 percent earn $36,810 or less and the top 10 percent earn $58,690 or more. BLS estimates 22,900 Cooks, Restaurant jobs in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH area — 8.468 of every 1,000 jobs in the area, a location quotient of 0.93 (below the national concentration). That is 1.6% of all Cooks, Restaurant employment in the United States (1,409,890 jobs nationally). By employment, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH is the #10 largest of the 25 covered metro areas for Cooks, Restaurant. In aggregate, Cooks, Restaurant in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH earn about $1.05 billion a year (BLS employment multiplied by the mean wage). At the mean wage, the engine's take-home is $37,070.42 a year, so the aggregate take-home of Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Cooks, Restaurant is about $0.85 billion. BLS reports a relative standard error of 4.9% for this employment estimate. Ranked by median pay, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH stands #4 of the 25 metro areas covered on this site for Cooks, Restaurant. By employment, Cooks, Restaurant is the #19 largest of the 30 covered occupations in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH. Placed against the national distribution for Cooks, Restaurant, the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH median of $45,830 falls above the national 75th percentile of $44,620. Across all occupations, the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH median is $66,620 a year — Cooks, Restaurant pay is 31.2% below the area's overall median.

Wages in detail

What the wage distribution says

The top 10 percent of Cooks, Restaurant in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH earn 1.6 times what the bottom 10 percent earn ($58,690 against $36,810). The middle half spans $9,990 — from $39,400 to $49,390. Hourly, the 90th percentile ($28.22) is 1.59 times the 10th ($17.70). In the upper half of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH distribution, the 75th percentile wage of $49,390 takes home $39,715.40 and the 90th percentile wage of $58,690 takes home $46,722.98 — $7,007.58 more net for $9,300 more gross. Against the median take-home of $37,032.64, the top decile keeps 1.26 times as much. The mean wage of $45,880 sits 0.1% above the median: higher-paid Cooks, Restaurant pull the average up in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH. Among the 30 covered occupations in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH, Cooks, Restaurant ranks #22 by median pay. In the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH wage ladder of covered occupations, Cooks, Restaurant sits between Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners at $46,550 and Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand at $45,600. Cooks, Restaurant accounts for 0.8% of all employment in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area. The average covered metro employs 24,720 Cooks, Restaurant; Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH employs 0.9 times that.

Take-home pay on the median wage in Massachusetts

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

At the median, $37,032.64 of the $45,830 gross is kept ($1,424.33 per paycheck) — a deduction rate of 19.20%. The deduction rate moves with pay: 17.86% at the 10th percentile, 18.30% at the 25th percentile, 19.59% at the 75th percentile, 20.39% at the 90th percentile. Between the 25th and 75th percentile wages, annual take-home rises by $7,527.28 on a gross rise of $9,990.

The same engine at the other published points of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH wage distribution:

Across the published distribution, take-home pay runs from $30,236.16 a year at the 10th percentile to $46,722.98 at the 90th — a spread of $16,486.82 of net pay inside one occupation and one metro area.

For scale: across all occupations, the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH median wage of $66,620 takes home $52,686.34 a year ($2,026.40 per paycheck, deduction rate 20.92%). The Cooks, Restaurant median take-home of $37,032.64 sits $15,653.70 (below that area-wide figure.

Multi-state metro area. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH also covers parts of New Hampshire. The take-home estimate above uses Massachusetts rules — the metro area's primary state. If the job is based in another part of the metro area, the state tax changes: see the New Hampshire paycheck calculator.

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 $45,830 in Massachusetts

Against the national median

Nationally, the median Cooks, Restaurant earns $37,390 a year ($17.98 an hour). The Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH median of $45,830 is $8,440 (22.6%) above the national median.

The means rank the area the same way: $45,880 a year in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH against $38,730 nationally, a gap of $7,150 (18.5%).

Set against the whole local market, the Cooks, Restaurant 90th percentile of $58,690 is 35% of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH all-occupations 90th percentile ($168,090), and its 10th percentile of $36,810 is 100% of the area-wide 10th ($36,760).

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.