Chef pay in Indiana after taxes: what you keep (2026)

The median cook in Indiana earned $35,040 a year in May 2024, which is $17 an hour for a full-time year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Half of the 27,640 cooks the BLS counts in Indiana earned more than that and half earned less; the middle half of them sat between $29,290 and $36,910. That is the gross figure, before anyone takes anything. What you keep depends on Indiana's tax, and Indiana has a flat 3% state income tax.

What the median cook keeps in Indiana

For a single filer on the median $35,040, taking the standard deduction and no other adjustments:

The state line is 3.0% of gross at this salary. Counties add a local income tax, roughly 1 to 3%, which is not in the table. Health insurance, retirement contributions and local taxes are not in it either; they vary by employer and by city.

Where Indiana ranks for cook pay

Of the 50 states, Indiana ranks 38 of 50 on the gross median for cooks. The highest-paying state is Massachusetts at $46,280 and the lowest is West Virginia at $28,560. Gross rank is not take-home rank: a state with no income tax climbs several places once the state line is applied, and a high-tax state drops.

Across the border

The same job in the states next to Indiana, gross median and estimated take-home for a single filer:

Michigan and Illinois leave a cook with more at the end of the year than Indiana does. Ohio and Kentucky pay less once tax is counted. Pay is one line; rent is the other, and a higher median in a metro with higher rent can leave you with less.

Where the cook jobs are in Indiana

The BLS count of 27,640 cooks is statewide. The metros with the most of that work are Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Evansville and South Bend, which is where the median is set and where the upper quartile ($36,910 and above) is most often paid. Employers who could not hire locally and have filed with the Department of Labor are listed on the Indiana openings page; those filings are the ones already paying to bring people in, and housing or transport is often part of the offer.

Indiana also has a program that pay people to move in: MakeMyMove town offers (typically $5,000 plus local perks, for remote workers moving to participating Indiana towns (Noblesville, Greensburg and others); each offer is its own program). Each has a residence condition and a funding round; the amount is the program's own "up to" figure.

What people get wrong about cook pay in Indiana

• Quoting the mean. The BLS mean for Indiana is $16 an hour, pulled up by the top earners. The median ($17) is what the typical cook makes.
• Comparing gross across states. A $35,040 offer in Indiana is $29,087 in hand; the same number in a no-tax state is $30,138.
• Forgetting the employer's share of insurance. A job that pays $33,040 with full health coverage can beat one that pays $38,040 without it.
• Treating the statewide median as the metro median. Indianapolis pays differently from a rural county; ask for the figure for the place you are actually going.

Everything about Indiana, on one page

The Indiana page has the licence registries and boards, the state tax at three salaries, the programs that pay you to come, and the openings filed in Indiana this month. If you know which state you are leaving, the move pages compare the two directly. Creating a free Workmerica profile with your trade and your destination puts you in front of Indiana employers hiring from out of state.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 state estimates for Chef. Tax lines are a single filer with the standard deduction, 2024 federal brackets, and the state rate in lib/us-states.ts; progressive states are approximated. Not tax advice.