What Cooks, Restaurant earn in Shelby County, TN
According to the latest federal wage data for the Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan area, the median pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Shelby County, TN is $36,340 a year, or $17.47 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare (and no state income tax), the paycheck shrinks to $31,328 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Shelby County, TN.
The mean wage is $35,500, which is 2.3% below the median, which suggests many workers sit near the top of the pay scale. The survey counts about 4,800 people working in this occupation across the Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Shelby County, TN has roughly 919,173 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 Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $27,030 a year ($13.00 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $44,560 or more ($21.42 an hour). That is a gap of $17,530 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $30,460 at the 25th percentile and $38,930 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.6 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 Shelby County, TN is $17.47. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $36,340, and the same salary is $3,028 a month before taxes or about $1,398 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $15.06 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 Shelby County, TN median of $36,340 is 2.8% below it.
How pay in Shelby County, TN compares
Compared with the Tennessee average
Pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Shelby County, TN is in line with the statewide figure: $36,340 locally against an employment-weighted Tennessee average of $36,551, a difference of only $211 (0.6%). Within Tennessee, the highest median we track for this job is $38,170 in Davidson County, TN.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Cooks, Restaurant is $38,193 across the contiguous United States. At $36,340, Shelby County, TN pays $1,853 less, which is 4.8% below 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 Shelby County, TN
Among the 502 occupations with published wages in Shelby County, TN, Cooks, Restaurant ranks number 438 by median pay, ahead of about 13% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $102,510 a year, which is $66,170 more than the median for Cooks, Restaurant.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $36,340 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 $5,012 a year, which leaves $31,328, or $2,611 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $14 goes to taxes and $86 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 13.8%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $20,590. 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 $2,232, an effective 6.1% 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 $2,253 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $527. FICA totals $2,780, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Tennessee
There is no state income tax on wages in Tennessee, which means Cooks, Restaurant in Shelby County, TN keep the full $31,328 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $1,817 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $151 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Shelby County, TN
IRS Statistics of Income data for Shelby County, TN show an average adjusted gross income of $81,297 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 14.7% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 4.4%, compared with the 6.1% 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 Shelby County, TN
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Shelby County, TN: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $31,328 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Shelby County, TN is $1,191 a month, or $14,292 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,301 a month. For Cooks, Restaurant, a one-bedroom absorbs 45.6% of take-home pay and 39.3% 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 9.5% of gross pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Shelby County, TN. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Tennessee residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,313 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $421, for $1,733 in total. Gasoline in Tennessee averages $3.08 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,426.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $20,887 a year, 67% of take-home pay. That leaves $10,441 a year, or $870 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 28.7% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Shelby County, TN
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Shelby County, TN: 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 Shelby County, TN, set beside the Tennessee and national medians.
Property taxes in Shelby County, TN
Homeowners in Shelby County, TN pay a median of $2,429 a year in real estate taxes, 68% above the Tennessee median of $1,442 and 22% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $249,100, the median tax bill is 0.98% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Cooks, Restaurant median of $36,340, a tax bill of that size would equal 6.7% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Shelby County, TN
Renters in Shelby County, TN pay a median gross rent of $1,232 a month in the Census survey, 4% above the Tennessee median of $1,189. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,191 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 $249,100, 13% below the Tennessee median of $286,700. Median household income is $63,767, 8% below the Tennessee median of $69,595, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 22.4% of that income.
Commuting in Shelby County, TN
Workers in Shelby County, TN who travel to a workplace spend an average of 22.3 minutes each way, 13% below the Tennessee average of 25.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 3.7 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 10.8% of workers in Shelby County, TN work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Cooks, Restaurant afford to live in Shelby County, TN?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $36,340 that ceiling is $909 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,191 is $283 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $22.90 an hour; the median for Cooks, Restaurant is $17.47, which is 24% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $15.06 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 18.2 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,301 a month means $651 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,486 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $16,927.
How fast you can save
At $870 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 12 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 24 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Cooks, Restaurant pay in Shelby County, TN
What is the hourly wage for Cooks, Restaurant in Shelby County, TN?
The median is $17.47 per hour, based on $36,340 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $13.00 at the 10th percentile to $21.42 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Shelby County, TN?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $36,340 becomes $31,328 a year. That is $2,611 a month, $1,205 every two weeks or $602 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Cooks, Restaurant in Shelby County, TN?
Total taxes are $5,012 a year, an effective rate of 13.8%: $2,232 federal income tax, $2,780 FICA and no Tennessee income tax.
Is pay for Cooks, Restaurant in Shelby County, TN above the Tennessee average?
It is about the same. The local median of $36,340 is within 0.6% of the Tennessee average of $36,551.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Cooks, Restaurant salary in Shelby County, TN?
A one-bedroom costs $1,191 a month against take-home pay of $2,611, which is 45.6% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $909 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Cooks, Restaurant in Shelby County, TN?
About $870 a month ($10,441 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $20,887 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Shelby County, TN at the 30% guideline?
$22.90 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $14,292 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Cooks, Restaurant is $17.47.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Memphis, TN-MS-AR 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 Tennessee 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.