What Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop earn in King County, WA
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $38,430: the median annual pay for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in King County, WA. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $18.48 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $43,620, which is 13.5% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 6,010 people working in this occupation across the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. King County, WA has roughly 2,287,171 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $35,050 a year ($16.85 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $60,740 or more ($29.20 an hour). That is a gap of $25,690 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $35,890 at the 25th percentile and $45,910 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.7 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $18.48 an hour or $38,430 a year at the median for King County, WA. Before any deductions, that is $3,203 a month, $1,478 every two weeks and $739 each week. After taxes the same job pays $15.87 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop this way: "Welcome patrons, seat them at tables or in lounge, and help ensure quality of facilities and service."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Provide guests with menus"; "Greet guests and seat them at tables or in waiting areas"; "Receive and record patrons' dining reservations"; "Maintain contact with kitchen staff, management, serving staff, and customers to ensure that dining details are handled properly and customers' concerns are addressed".
Job outlook for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 444,200 jobs in 2025 to 459,500 in 2035, a change of +3.4%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 107,100 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 24.1% 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 $31,200 for this occupation; the King County, WA median of $38,430 is 23.2% above it.
How pay in King County, WA compares
Compared with the Washington average
Pay in King County, WA runs $796 below the Washington average of $39,226, a gap of 2.0%. A worker who moved to a better-paying part of Washington would, on paper, gain that difference before taxes. Within Washington, King County, WA already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop is $30,922 across the contiguous United States. At $38,430, King County, WA pays $7,508 more, which is 24.3% 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 King County, WA
Among the 612 occupations with published wages in King County, WA, Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop ranks number 610 by median pay, ahead of about 0% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $214,680 a year, which is $176,250 more than the median for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop earning the King County, WA median of $38,430, they add up to $5,423. The result is $33,007 of take-home pay a year ($2,751 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $14 goes to taxes and $86 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 14.1%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $22,680. 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 $2,483, an effective 6.5% 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 $2,383 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $557. FICA totals $2,940, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Washington
Washington does not tax wage income, so the state income tax line for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in King County, WA is $0. That alone leaves more in the paycheck than the same salary would in a state with an income tax. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $1,922 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $160 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for King County, WA
IRS Statistics of Income data for King County, WA show an average adjusted gross income of $164,464 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 18.9% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 6.0%, compared with the 6.5% 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 King County, WA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in King County, WA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $33,007 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For King County, WA, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $2,180 a month ($26,160 a year), and at $2,549 for two bedrooms. For Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop, a one-bedroom absorbs 79.3% of take-home pay and 68.1% 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 8.9% of gross pay for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in King County, WA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Washington residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,257 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $475, for $1,732 in total. Gasoline in Washington averages $4.07 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,883.
What is left over
The basics cost $33,210 a year in King County, WA, but take-home pay for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop is $33,007. That is a shortfall of $203 a year, or $17 a month, before health care, transportation beyond fuel, debt or savings. Closing the gap would take roughly 13 extra paid hours a year at the take-home hourly rate of $15.87, or a second earner, a cheaper home or a roommate.
Local housing and commute data for King County, WA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in King County, WA: 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 King County, WA, set beside the Washington and national medians.
Property taxes in King County, WA
Homeowners in King County, WA pay a median of $7,114 a year in real estate taxes, 56% above the Washington median of $4,556 and 128% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $859,900, the median tax bill is 0.83% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop median of $38,430, a tax bill of that size would equal 18.5% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in King County, WA
Renters in King County, WA pay a median gross rent of $2,092 a month in the Census survey, 19% above the Washington median of $1,760. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $2,180 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 $859,900, 52% above the Washington median of $564,600. Median household income is $124,746, 27% above the Washington median of $98,141, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 21.0% of that income.
Commuting in King County, WA
Workers in King County, WA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 27.6 minutes each way, 4% above the Washington average of 26.6. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.6 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 29.2% of workers in King County, WA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop afford to live in King County, WA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $38,430 that ceiling is $961 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $2,180 is $1,219 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $41.92 an hour; the median for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop is $18.48, which is 56% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $15.87 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 31.7 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,549 a month means $1,275 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $10,866 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $10,663, 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 $38,430 median, lower housing costs than the $2,180 one-bedroom rent, or a second income.
Frequently asked questions about Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop pay in King County, WA
How much do Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop make per hour in King County, WA?
The median is $18.48 per hour, based on $38,430 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $16.85 at the 10th percentile to $29.20 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop take home after taxes in King County, WA?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $38,430 becomes $33,007 a year. That is $2,751 a month, $1,270 every two weeks or $635 a week.
How much tax do Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop pay in King County, WA?
Total taxes are $5,423 a year, an effective rate of 14.1%: $2,483 federal income tax, $2,940 FICA and no Washington income tax.
Do Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop earn more in King County, WA than elsewhere in Washington?
No. The local median of $38,430 is -2.0% versus the Washington average of $39,226, a difference of $796 a year.
Can Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop afford a one-bedroom apartment in King County, WA?
A one-bedroom costs $2,180 a month against take-home pay of $2,751, which is 79.3% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $961 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop in King County, WA?
Nothing remains: the basics cost $33,210 a year, which is $203 more than take-home pay, a monthly shortfall of $17.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in King County, WA at the 30% guideline?
$41.92 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $26,160 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop is $18.48.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 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 Washington 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.