What Cooks, Restaurant earn in Charles County, MD
According to the latest federal wage data for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan area, the median pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Charles County, MD is $42,920 a year, or $20.63 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $34,909 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Charles County, MD.
The mean wage is $42,590, which is 0.8% below the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 29,670 people working in this occupation across the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Charles County, MD has roughly 170,527 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 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $35,310 a year ($16.98 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $49,650 or more ($23.87 an hour). That is a gap of $14,340 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $36,790 at the 25th percentile and $46,070 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.4 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 Charles County, MD is $20.63. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $42,920, and the same salary is $3,577 a month before taxes or about $1,651 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $16.78 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 Charles County, MD median of $42,920 is 14.8% above it.
How pay in Charles County, MD compares
Compared with the Maryland average
Charles County, MD pays above the state benchmark. The Maryland employment-weighted average for Cooks, Restaurant is $40,202; the local median of $42,920 beats it by $2,718, or 6.8%. Within Maryland, Charles County, MD 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 $42,920, Charles County, MD pays $4,727 more, which is 12.4% 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 Charles County, MD
Among the 618 occupations with published wages in Charles County, MD, Cooks, Restaurant ranks number 549 by median pay, ahead of about 11% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $195,190 a year, which is $152,270 more than the median for Cooks, Restaurant.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $42,920 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 $8,011 a year, which leaves $34,909, or $2,909 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $19 goes to taxes and $81 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 18.7%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $27,170. 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 $3,022, an effective 7.0% 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 $2,661 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $622. FICA totals $3,283, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Maryland
Maryland income tax on this salary is $1,706 a year, or 4.0% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 56% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $142 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 Charles County, MD
IRS Statistics of Income data for Charles County, MD show an average adjusted gross income of $88,209 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 11.6% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 4.8%, compared with the 7.0% 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 Charles County, MD
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Charles County, MD: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $34,909 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Charles County, MD is $2,204 a month, or $26,448 a year. A two-bedroom costs $2,438 a month. For Cooks, Restaurant, a one-bedroom absorbs 75.8% of take-home pay and 61.6% 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 8.0% of gross pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Charles County, MD. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Maryland residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,887 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $634, for $2,521 in total. Gasoline in Maryland averages $3.33 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,539.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $33,944 a year, 97% of take-home pay. That leaves $965 a year, or $80 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 2.2% of gross pay, a thin cushion that one unexpected expense could erase.
Local housing and commute data for Charles County, MD
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Charles County, MD: 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 Charles County, MD, set beside the Maryland and national medians.
Property taxes in Charles County, MD
Homeowners in Charles County, MD pay a median of $4,339 a year in real estate taxes, 6% above the Maryland median of $4,093 and 39% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $428,500, the median tax bill is 1.01% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Cooks, Restaurant median of $42,920, a tax bill of that size would equal 10.1% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Charles County, MD
Renters in Charles County, MD pay a median gross rent of $1,920 a month in the Census survey, 13% above the Maryland median of $1,705. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $2,204 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 $428,500, 2% above the Maryland median of $419,900. Median household income is $122,816, 18% above the Maryland median of $103,678, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 21.5% of that income.
Commuting in Charles County, MD
Workers in Charles County, MD who travel to a workplace spend an average of 41.4 minutes each way, 33% above the Maryland average of 31.1. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 6.9 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 16.4% of workers in Charles County, MD work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Cooks, Restaurant afford to live in Charles County, MD?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $42,920 that ceiling is $1,073 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $2,204 is $1,131 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $42.38 an hour; the median for Cooks, Restaurant is $20.63, which is 51% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $16.78 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 30.3 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,438 a month means $1,219 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $11,820 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $12,785.
How fast you can save
At $80 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 125 months (10.4 years). Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 250 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Cooks, Restaurant pay in Charles County, MD
What is the hourly wage for Cooks, Restaurant in Charles County, MD?
The median is $20.63 per hour, based on $42,920 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $16.98 at the 10th percentile to $23.87 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Charles County, MD?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $42,920 becomes $34,909 a year. That is $2,909 a month, $1,343 every two weeks or $671 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Cooks, Restaurant in Charles County, MD?
Total taxes are $8,011 a year, an effective rate of 18.7%: $3,022 federal income tax, $3,283 FICA and $1,706 Maryland income tax.
Is pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Charles County, MD above the Maryland average?
Yes. The local median of $42,920 is +6.8% versus the Maryland average of $40,202, a difference of $2,718 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Cooks, Restaurant salary in Charles County, MD?
A one-bedroom costs $2,204 a month against take-home pay of $2,909, which is 75.8% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,073 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Cooks, Restaurant in Charles County, MD?
About $80 a month ($965 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $33,944 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Charles County, MD at the 30% guideline?
$42.38 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $26,448 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Cooks, Restaurant is $20.63.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 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 Maryland 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.