What Waiters and Waitresses earn in Iberville Parish, LA
The median pay for Waiters and Waitresses in Iberville Parish, LA is $15,080 per year, which works out to $7.25 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the Baton Rouge, LA metropolitan area, the labor market that Iberville Parish, LA belongs to. Half of the workers in this occupation earn more than the median and half earn less, which makes it a sturdier yardstick than an average that a few very high earners can pull upward.
The mean wage is $21,080, which is 39.8% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 6,650 people working in this occupation across the Baton Rouge, LA metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Iberville Parish, LA has roughly 29,815 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Waiters and Waitresses in the Baton Rouge, LA metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $15,080 a year ($7.25 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $36,230 or more ($17.42 an hour). That is a gap of $21,150 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $15,080 at the 25th percentile and $20,940 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.4 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 Waiters and Waitresses in Iberville Parish, LA is $7.25. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $15,080, and the same salary is $1,257 a month before taxes or about $580 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $6.66 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Waiters and Waitresses
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Waiters and Waitresses this way: "Take orders and serve food and beverages to patrons at tables in dining establishment."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Check patrons' identification to ensure that they meet minimum age requirements for consumption of alcoholic beverages"; "Collect payments from customers"; "Write patrons' food orders on order slips, memorize orders, or enter orders into computers for transmittal to kitchen staff"; "Take orders from patrons for food or beverages".
Job outlook for Waiters and Waitresses
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 2,284,400 jobs in 2025 to 2,330,900 in 2035, a change of +2%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 423,100 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 18.5% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: no formal educational credential. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $35,230 for this occupation; the Iberville Parish, LA median of $15,080 is 57.2% below it.
How pay in Iberville Parish, LA compares
Compared with the Louisiana average
The local median of $15,080 sits below the Louisiana employment-weighted average of $15,552. The shortfall is $472 a year, or 3.0%, so Iberville Parish, LA is a lower-paying market for this job than the state as a whole. Within Louisiana, the highest median we track for this job is $16,640 in Jefferson Parish, LA.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Waiters and Waitresses is $33,856 across the contiguous United States. At $15,080, Iberville Parish, LA pays $18,776 less, which is 55.5% 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 Iberville Parish, LA
Among the 425 occupations with published wages in Iberville Parish, LA, Waiters and Waitresses ranks number 425 by median pay, ahead of about 0% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $107,140 a year, which is $92,060 more than the median for Waiters and Waitresses.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $15,080 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 $1,231 a year, which leaves $13,849, or $1,154 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $8 goes to taxes and $92 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 8.2%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $0. 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 10% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $0, an effective 0.0% of gross pay, well below the 10% 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 $935 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $219. FICA totals $1,154, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Louisiana
Louisiana income tax on this salary is $77 a year, or 0.5% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. 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 Iberville Parish, LA
IRS Statistics of Income data for Iberville Parish, LA show an average adjusted gross income of $68,893 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 11.3% across all filers. Filers in the $10,000 to under $25,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 3.0%, compared with the 0.0% 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 Iberville Parish, LA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Iberville Parish, LA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $13,849 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Iberville Parish, LA is $819 a month, or $9,828 a year. A two-bedroom costs $892 a month. For Waiters and Waitresses, a one-bedroom absorbs 71.0% of take-home pay and 65.2% 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 22.8% of gross pay for Waiters and Waitresses in Iberville Parish, LA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Louisiana residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,239 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $654, for $1,893 in total. Gasoline in Louisiana averages $2.91 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,345.
What is left over
The basics cost $16,502 a year in Iberville Parish, LA, but take-home pay for Waiters and Waitresses is $13,849. That is a shortfall of $2,653 a year, or $221 a month, before health care, transportation beyond fuel, debt or savings. Closing the gap would take roughly 398 extra paid hours a year at the take-home hourly rate of $6.66, or a second earner, a cheaper home or a roommate.
Local housing and commute data for Iberville Parish, LA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Iberville Parish, LA: 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 Iberville Parish, LA, set beside the Louisiana and national medians.
Property taxes in Iberville Parish, LA
Homeowners in Iberville Parish, LA pay a median of $556 a year in real estate taxes, 53% below the Louisiana median of $1,180 and 82% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $172,800, the median tax bill is 0.32% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Waiters and Waitresses median of $15,080, a tax bill of that size would equal 3.7% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Iberville Parish, LA
Renters in Iberville Parish, LA pay a median gross rent of $827 a month in the Census survey, 22% below the Louisiana median of $1,064. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $819 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 $172,800, 20% below the Louisiana median of $216,500. Median household income is $54,000, 11% below the Louisiana median of $60,756, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 18.2% of that income.
Commuting in Iberville Parish, LA
Workers in Iberville Parish, LA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 25.7 minutes each way, in line with the Louisiana average of 25.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.3 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 5.3% of workers in Iberville Parish, LA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Waiters and Waitresses afford to live in Iberville Parish, LA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $15,080 that ceiling is $377 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $819 is $442 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $15.75 an hour; the median for Waiters and Waitresses is $7.25, which is 54% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $6.66 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 28.4 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $892 a month means $446 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $4,476 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $1,823, 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 $15,080 median, lower housing costs than the $819 one-bedroom rent, or a second income.
Frequently asked questions about Waiters and Waitresses pay in Iberville Parish, LA
What is the hourly wage for Waiters and Waitresses in Iberville Parish, LA?
The median is $7.25 per hour, based on $15,080 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $7.25 at the 10th percentile to $17.42 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Waiters and Waitresses in Iberville Parish, LA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $15,080 becomes $13,849 a year. That is $1,154 a month, $533 every two weeks or $266 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Waiters and Waitresses in Iberville Parish, LA?
Total taxes are $1,231 a year, an effective rate of 8.2%: $0 federal income tax, $1,154 FICA and $77 Louisiana income tax.
Is pay for Waiters and Waitresses in Iberville Parish, LA above the Louisiana average?
No. The local median of $15,080 is -3.0% versus the Louisiana average of $15,552, a difference of $472 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Waiters and Waitresses salary in Iberville Parish, LA?
A one-bedroom costs $819 a month against take-home pay of $1,154, which is 71.0% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $377 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Waiters and Waitresses in Iberville Parish, LA?
Nothing remains: the basics cost $16,502 a year, which is $2,653 more than take-home pay, a monthly shortfall of $221.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Iberville Parish, LA at the 30% guideline?
$15.75 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $9,828 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Waiters and Waitresses is $7.25.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Baton Rouge, LA 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 Louisiana 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.