What Food Preparation Workers earn in Caldwell County, TX
The median pay for Food Preparation Workers in Caldwell County, TX is $34,880 per year, which works out to $16.77 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX metropolitan area, the labor market that Caldwell County, TX 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 $34,550, which is 0.9% below the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 9,350 people working in this occupation across the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Caldwell County, TX has roughly 48,669 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Food Preparation Workers in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $26,940 a year ($12.95 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $43,610 or more ($20.97 an hour). That is a gap of $16,670 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $27,260 at the 25th percentile and $38,720 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 Food Preparation Workers in Caldwell County, TX is $16.77. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $34,880, and the same salary is $2,907 a month before taxes or about $1,342 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $14.50 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Food Preparation Workers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Food Preparation Workers this way: "Perform a variety of food preparation duties other than cooking, such as preparing cold foods and shellfish, slicing meat, and brewing coffee or tea."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Store food in designated containers and storage areas to prevent spoilage"; "Portion and wrap food, or place it directly on plates for service to patrons"; "Place food trays over food warmers for immediate service, or store them in refrigerated storage cabinets"; "Weigh or measure ingredients".
Job outlook for Food Preparation Workers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to shrink from 908,500 jobs in 2025 to 881,300 in 2035, a change of -3%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 135,700 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 14.9% 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 $35,320 for this occupation; the Caldwell County, TX median of $34,880 is 1.2% below it.
How pay in Caldwell County, TX compares
Compared with the Texas average
Caldwell County, TX pays above the state benchmark. The Texas employment-weighted average for Food Preparation Workers is $31,761; the local median of $34,880 beats it by $3,119, or 9.8%. Within Texas, the highest median we track for this job is $35,020 in Harris County, TX.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Food Preparation Workers is $34,184 across the contiguous United States. At $34,880, Caldwell County, TX pays $696 more, which is 2.0% 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 Caldwell County, TX
Among the 528 occupations with published wages in Caldwell County, TX, Food Preparation Workers ranks number 502 by median pay, ahead of about 5% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $176,990 a year, which is $142,110 more than the median for Food Preparation Workers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $34,880 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 $4,725 a year, which leaves $30,155, or $2,513 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 13.6%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $19,130. 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 $2,057, an effective 5.9% 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 $2,163 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $506. FICA totals $2,668, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Texas
There is no state income tax on wages in Texas, which means Food Preparation Workers in Caldwell County, TX keep the full $30,155 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $1,744 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $145 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Caldwell County, TX
IRS Statistics of Income data for Caldwell County, TX show an average adjusted gross income of $61,982 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 10.5% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.1%, compared with the 5.9% 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 Caldwell County, TX
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Caldwell County, TX: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $30,155 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Caldwell County, TX is $1,530 a month, or $18,360 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,817 a month. For Food Preparation Workers, a one-bedroom absorbs 60.9% of take-home pay and 52.6% 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 9.8% of gross pay for Food Preparation Workers in Caldwell County, TX. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Texas residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,578 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $719, for $2,297 in total. Gasoline in Texas averages $2.88 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,334.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $25,427 a year, 84% of take-home pay. That leaves $4,727 a year, or $394 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 13.6% of gross pay, a workable but modest cushion.
Local housing and commute data for Caldwell County, TX
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Caldwell County, TX: 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 Caldwell County, TX, set beside the Texas and national medians.
Property taxes in Caldwell County, TX
Homeowners in Caldwell County, TX pay a median of $3,235 a year in real estate taxes, 24% below the Texas median of $4,232 and 4% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $240,500, the median tax bill is 1.35% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Food Preparation Workers median of $34,880, a tax bill of that size would equal 9.3% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Caldwell County, TX
Renters in Caldwell County, TX pay a median gross rent of $1,173 a month in the Census survey, 16% below the Texas median of $1,403. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,530 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 $240,500, 15% below the Texas median of $283,800. Median household income is $69,758, 11% below the Texas median of $78,476, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 26.3% of that income.
Commuting in Caldwell County, TX
Workers in Caldwell County, TX who travel to a workplace spend an average of 34.3 minutes each way, 28% above the Texas average of 26.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.7 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 9.9% of workers in Caldwell County, TX work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Food Preparation Workers afford to live in Caldwell County, TX?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $34,880 that ceiling is $872 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,530 is $658 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $29.42 an hour; the median for Food Preparation Workers is $16.77, which is 43% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $14.50 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 24.4 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,817 a month means $909 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $7,458 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $12,185.
How fast you can save
At $394 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 26 months (2.2 years). Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 52 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Food Preparation Workers pay in Caldwell County, TX
What is the hourly wage for Food Preparation Workers in Caldwell County, TX?
The median is $16.77 per hour, based on $34,880 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $12.95 at the 10th percentile to $20.97 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Food Preparation Workers in Caldwell County, TX?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $34,880 becomes $30,155 a year. That is $2,513 a month, $1,160 every two weeks or $580 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Food Preparation Workers in Caldwell County, TX?
Total taxes are $4,725 a year, an effective rate of 13.6%: $2,057 federal income tax, $2,668 FICA and no Texas income tax.
Is pay for Food Preparation Workers in Caldwell County, TX above the Texas average?
Yes. The local median of $34,880 is +9.8% versus the Texas average of $31,761, a difference of $3,119 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Food Preparation Workers salary in Caldwell County, TX?
A one-bedroom costs $1,530 a month against take-home pay of $2,513, which is 60.9% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $872 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Food Preparation Workers in Caldwell County, TX?
About $394 a month ($4,727 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $25,427 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Caldwell County, TX at the 30% guideline?
$29.42 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $18,360 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Food Preparation Workers is $16.77.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX 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 Texas 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.