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

The median cook in New Hampshire earned $39,050 a year in May 2024, which is $19 an hour for a full-time year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Half of the 6,980 cooks the BLS counts in New Hampshire earned more than that and half earned less; the middle half of them sat between $35,850 and $45,920. That is the gross figure, before anyone takes anything. What you keep depends on New Hampshire's tax, and New Hampshire has no state income tax on wages.

What the median cook keeps in New Hampshire

For a single filer on the median $39,050, taking the standard deduction and no other adjustments:

New Hampshire takes nothing from wages, so the only deductions are federal. That is worth $1,953 a year against a state with a flat 5% tax on the same salary. No tax on wages; the tax on interest and dividends ended in 2025, 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 New Hampshire ranks for cook pay

Of the 50 states, New Hampshire ranks 9 of 50 on the gross median for cooks, in the top ten. 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 New Hampshire, gross median and estimated take-home for a single filer:

Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont leave a cook with more at the end of the year than New Hampshire does; Massachusetts by about $3,495. 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 New Hampshire

The BLS count of 6,980 cooks is statewide. The metros with the most of that work are Manchester, Nashua and Concord, which is where the median is set and where the upper quartile ($45,920 and above) is most often paid. Employers who could not hire locally and have filed with the Department of Labor are listed on the New Hampshire openings page; those filings are the ones already paying to bring people in, and housing or transport is often part of the offer.

What people get wrong about cook pay in New Hampshire

• Quoting the mean. The BLS mean for New Hampshire is $19 an hour, pulled up by the top earners. The median ($19) is what the typical cook makes.
• Comparing gross across states. New Hampshire's zero state tax means its gross understates it against taxed states.
• Forgetting the employer's share of insurance. A job that pays $37,050 with full health coverage can beat one that pays $42,050 without it.
• Treating the statewide median as the metro median. Manchester pays differently from a rural county; ask for the figure for the place you are actually going.

Everything about New Hampshire, on one page

The New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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.