Cooks, Restaurant salary in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

The figures

The median Cooks, Restaurant in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA metro area earns $45,200 a year ($21.73 an hour), according to the BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates (full citation in Sources). The middle half of Cooks, Restaurant in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA earn between $38,850 and $51,010 a year. At the ends of the distribution, the lowest-paid 10 percent earn $37,510 or less and the top 10 percent earn $61,430 or more. BLS estimates 13,020 Cooks, Restaurant jobs in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA area — 10.776 of every 1,000 jobs in the area, a location quotient of 1.19 (above the national concentration). That is 0.9% of all Cooks, Restaurant employment in the United States (1,409,890 jobs nationally). By employment, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA is the #22 largest of the 25 covered metro areas for Cooks, Restaurant. In aggregate, Cooks, Restaurant in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA earn about $0.60 billion a year (BLS employment multiplied by the mean wage). At the mean wage, the engine's take-home is $36,412.14 a year, so the aggregate take-home of Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Cooks, Restaurant is about $0.47 billion. BLS reports a relative standard error of 6% for this employment estimate. Ranked by median pay, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA stands #5 of the 25 metro areas covered on this site for Cooks, Restaurant. By employment, Cooks, Restaurant is the #16 largest of the 30 covered occupations in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA. Placed against the national distribution for Cooks, Restaurant, the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median of $45,200 falls above the national 75th percentile of $44,620. Across all occupations, the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median is $60,690 a year — Cooks, Restaurant pay is 25.5% below the area's overall median.

Wages in detail

What the wage distribution says

The top 10 percent of Cooks, Restaurant in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA earn 1.6 times what the bottom 10 percent earn ($61,430 against $37,510). The middle half spans $12,160 — from $38,850 to $51,010. Hourly, the 90th percentile ($29.53) is 1.64 times the 10th ($18.04). In the upper half of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA distribution, the 75th percentile wage of $51,010 takes home $39,884.60 and the 90th percentile wage of $61,430 takes home $47,454.48 — $7,569.88 more net for $10,420 more gross. Against the median take-home of $35,663.72, the top decile keeps 1.33 times as much. The mean wage of $46,230 sits 2.3% above the median: higher-paid Cooks, Restaurant pull the average up in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA. Among the 30 covered occupations in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA, Cooks, Restaurant ranks #25 by median pay. In the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA wage ladder of covered occupations, Cooks, Restaurant sits between Home Health and Personal Care Aides at $45,570 and Stockers and Order Fillers at $44,440. Cooks, Restaurant accounts for 1.1% of all employment in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA metro area. The average covered metro employs 24,720 Cooks, Restaurant; Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA employs 0.5 times that.

Take-home pay on the median wage in Oregon

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

At the median, $35,663.72 of the $45,200 gross is kept ($1,371.68 per paycheck) — a deduction rate of 21.10%. The deduction rate moves with pay: 19.82% at the 10th percentile, 20.08% at the 25th percentile, 21.81% at the 75th percentile, 22.75% at the 90th percentile. Between the 25th and 75th percentile wages, annual take-home rises by $8,834.08 on a gross rise of $12,160.

The same engine at the other published points of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA wage distribution:

Across the published distribution, take-home pay runs from $30,076.60 a year at the 10th percentile to $47,454.48 at the 90th — a spread of $17,377.88 of net pay inside one occupation and one metro area.

For scale: across all occupations, the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median wage of $60,690 takes home $46,917.28 a year ($1,804.51 per paycheck, deduction rate 22.69%). The Cooks, Restaurant median take-home of $35,663.72 sits $11,253.56 (below that area-wide figure.

Multi-state metro area. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA also covers parts of Washington. The take-home estimate above uses Oregon 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 Washington 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 $45,200 in Oregon

Against the national median

Nationally, the median Cooks, Restaurant earns $37,390 a year ($17.98 an hour). The Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median of $45,200 is $7,810 (20.9%) above the national median.

The means rank the area the same way: $46,230 a year in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA against $38,730 nationally, a gap of $7,500 (19.4%).

Set against the whole local market, the Cooks, Restaurant 90th percentile of $61,430 is 45% of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA all-occupations 90th percentile ($136,920), and its 10th percentile of $37,510 is 101% of the area-wide 10th ($37,200).

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.