What Cooks, Restaurant earn in Santa Clara County, CA
According to the latest federal wage data for the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metropolitan area, the median pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Santa Clara County, CA is $47,170 a year, or $22.68 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $39,103 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Santa Clara County, CA.
The mean wage is $49,390, which is 4.7% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 8,900 people working in this occupation across the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Santa Clara County, CA has roughly 1,902,047 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Cooks, Restaurant in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $37,100 a year ($17.84 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $63,940 or more ($30.74 an hour). That is a gap of $26,840 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $43,970 at the 25th percentile and $55,800 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.7 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Cooks, Restaurant in Santa Clara County, CA is $22.68. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $47,170, and the same salary is $3,931 a month before taxes or about $1,814 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $18.80 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Cooks, Restaurant
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Cooks, Restaurant this way: "Prepare, season, and cook dishes such as soups, meats, vegetables, or desserts in restaurants. May order supplies, keep records and accounts, price items on menu, or plan menu."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Turn or stir foods to ensure even cooking"; "Season and cook food according to recipes or personal judgment and experience"; "Observe and test foods to determine if they have been cooked sufficiently, using methods such as tasting, smelling, or piercing them with utensils"; "Weigh, measure, and mix ingredients according to recipes or personal judgment, using various kitchen utensils and equipment".
Job outlook for Cooks, Restaurant
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 1,417,500 jobs in 2025 to 1,588,800 in 2035, a change of +12.1%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 218,600 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 15.4% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: no formal educational credential. Work experience in a related occupation: less than 5 years. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: moderate-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $37,390 for this occupation; the Santa Clara County, CA median of $47,170 is 26.2% above it.
How pay in Santa Clara County, CA compares
Compared with the California average
Santa Clara County, CA pays above the state benchmark. The California employment-weighted average for Cooks, Restaurant is $44,367; the local median of $47,170 beats it by $2,803, or 6.3%. Within California, Santa Clara County, CA already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Cooks, Restaurant is $38,193 across the contiguous United States. At $47,170, Santa Clara County, CA pays $8,977 more, which is 23.5% above that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Santa Clara County, CA
Among the 507 occupations with published wages in Santa Clara County, CA, Cooks, Restaurant ranks number 456 by median pay, ahead of about 10% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $291,660 a year, which is $244,490 more than the median for Cooks, Restaurant.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $47,170 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $8,067 a year, which leaves $39,103, or $3,259 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $17 goes to taxes and $83 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 17.1%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $31,420. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $3,532, an effective 7.5% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $2,925 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $684. FICA totals $3,609, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in California
California income tax on this salary is $926 a year, or 2.0% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 26% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $77 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Santa Clara County, CA
IRS Statistics of Income data for Santa Clara County, CA show an average adjusted gross income of $216,171 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 21.2% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.6%, compared with the 7.5% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Santa Clara County, CA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Santa Clara County, CA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $39,103 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Clara County, CA is $2,778 a month, or $33,336 a year. A two-bedroom costs $3,272 a month. For Cooks, Restaurant, a one-bedroom absorbs 85.3% of take-home pay and 70.7% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 7.3% of gross pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Santa Clara County, CA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using California residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $3,378 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $751, for $4,129 in total. Gasoline in California averages $4.42 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $2,047.
What is left over
The basics cost $42,947 a year in Santa Clara County, CA, but take-home pay for Cooks, Restaurant is $39,103. That is a shortfall of $3,844 a year, or $320 a month, before health care, transportation beyond fuel, debt or savings. Closing the gap would take roughly 204 extra paid hours a year at the take-home hourly rate of $18.80, or a second earner, a cheaper home or a roommate.
Local housing and commute data for Santa Clara County, CA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Santa Clara County, CA: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Santa Clara County, CA, set beside the California and national medians.
Property taxes in Santa Clara County, CA
Homeowners in Santa Clara County, CA pay a median of $10,001 a year in real estate taxes, 95% above the California median of $5,124 and 221% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $1,490,600, the median tax bill is 0.67% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Cooks, Restaurant median of $47,170, a tax bill of that size would equal 21.2% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Santa Clara County, CA
Renters in Santa Clara County, CA pay a median gross rent of $2,857 a month in the Census survey, 40% above the California median of $2,036. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $2,778 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $1,490,600, 103% above the California median of $734,700. Median household income is $164,281, 66% above the California median of $99,122, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 20.3% of that income.
Commuting in Santa Clara County, CA
Workers in Santa Clara County, CA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 26.2 minutes each way, 9% below the California average of 28.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.4 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 23.9% of workers in Santa Clara County, CA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Cooks, Restaurant afford to live in Santa Clara County, CA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $47,170 that ceiling is $1,179 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $2,778 is $1,599 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $53.42 an hour; the median for Cooks, Restaurant is $22.68, which is 58% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $18.80 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 34.1 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $3,272 a month means $1,636 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $13,704 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $9,860, which turns the shortfall into a surplus.
How fast you can save
With no monthly margin after the four basics, saving requires a change on one side of the ledger: higher pay than the $47,170 median, lower housing costs than the $2,778 one-bedroom rent, or a second income.
Frequently asked questions about Cooks, Restaurant pay in Santa Clara County, CA
What is the hourly wage for Cooks, Restaurant in Santa Clara County, CA?
The median is $22.68 per hour, based on $47,170 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $17.84 at the 10th percentile to $30.74 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Santa Clara County, CA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $47,170 becomes $39,103 a year. That is $3,259 a month, $1,504 every two weeks or $752 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Cooks, Restaurant in Santa Clara County, CA?
Total taxes are $8,067 a year, an effective rate of 17.1%: $3,532 federal income tax, $3,609 FICA and $926 California income tax.
Is pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Santa Clara County, CA above the California average?
Yes. The local median of $47,170 is +6.3% versus the California average of $44,367, a difference of $2,803 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Cooks, Restaurant salary in Santa Clara County, CA?
A one-bedroom costs $2,778 a month against take-home pay of $3,259, which is 85.3% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,179 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Cooks, Restaurant in Santa Clara County, CA?
Nothing remains: the basics cost $42,947 a year, which is $3,844 more than take-home pay, a monthly shortfall of $320.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Santa Clara County, CA at the 30% guideline?
$53.42 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $33,336 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Cooks, Restaurant is $22.68.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the California rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.