Mississippi · BLS May 2025

How much does a dining room attendant make in Mississippi?

Also called busser, barback. SOC 35-9011.

A dining room attendant in Mississippi earns a median of $23,180 a year ($11.15 an hour), about $1,709 a month after federal, state and FICA tax. Figure from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. The survey counted 2,620 of these jobs in Mississippi in May 2025.

Median pay · Mississippi

$23,180A year, or $11 an hour.
Take-home a month$1,709After federal, state and FICA tax at 11.6%
Worth at national prices$26,658Prices here sit at 87 against 100
Against the nation31.8% belowNational median $33,980
What dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers earn in Mississippi, May 2025
PercentileAnnualHourly
10th percentile1 in 10 earn less$16,880$8
25th percentile$20,690$10
MedianHalf earn more, half less$23,180$11
75th percentile$28,210$14
90th percentile1 in 10 earn more$30,840$15
MeanAll pay divided by all jobs$24,480$12

Wage survey · BLS May 2025

How we got this
  1. Median wage in MississippiBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$23,180
  2. Median hourly wagePublished separately by BLS, not divided out of the annual figure.$11.15
  3. Take-home after federal, state and FICA tax$1,709 a month at an effective rate of 11.6%.$20,504 a year
  4. Worth at national average pricesPrices in Mississippi sit at 87 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$26,658
  5. Against the national medianThe national median is $33,980.31.8% below
  6. Jobs countedA concentration of 0.65 against the nation's 1.00.2,620
What we assumed
  • Wages are BLS OEWS survey estimates for May 2025, not job postings or offers.
  • OEWS surveys wage and salary workers. The self-employed and business owners are outside it.
  • Take-home assumes one 2026 filer, filing single, taking the standard deduction, with no dependents, pre-tax retirement contributions or local income tax.
  • Regional price parities compare price levels between places in one year. They are not inflation, and they do not adjust for what a household actually buys.
Technical details

Method occupation-wage-v1Data bls-oews-2025-05-v1, us-tax-2026-v1, bea-rpp-2024-v1, census-acs5-2024-v1

What lands in the bank

Tax year 2026 · Interactive

Estimated on the median salary of $23,180 in Mississippi, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Explore other wage levels and filing statuses below.

$23,180
$15,000$35,000
Filing status:
Gross salary breakdown$23,180
Net 88%
Fed 3%
MS 1%
FICA 8%
Annual take-home$20,504After all taxes
Monthly deposit$1,709Estimated per month
Biweekly paycheck$789Every 2 weeks (26/yr)
Effective tax rate11.6%Total tax burden
Federal income tax$708 / yr
Mississippi state income tax$195 / yr
FICA (Social Security & Medicare)$1,773 / yr

Run the numbers on your own pay

Same U.S. tax tables as the rest of the site. Change the salary, state, or filing status.

What $23,180 is worth in Mississippi

Prices in Mississippi sit at 87 against a national average of 100, so $23,180 earned here buys what $26,658 buys at national average prices.

  • Rents. 56.5 against 100, the component that moves most between states.
  • Against local households. The median household in Mississippi takes in $56,447, so this occupation's median is 0.41 times that, on one income.
  • How common the job is here. 35% less concentrated in Mississippi than in the country as a whole.

Compare two places properly →

Reading the numbers

What stands out for dining room attendants in Mississippi

Mississippi ranks 48 of 50 states by median pay for dining room attendants, among the lowest-paying in the country.

Rents in Mississippi index at 56.5 (U.S. = 100) while prices overall index at 87, a gap of -30.5 pts. For a renter, housing moves the local cost of living more than anything else.

Prices in Mississippi index at 87 (U.S. = 100), so the $23,180 median buys roughly what $26,658 would at national prices, $3,478 more.

The median for this job is 0.4 times the median household income in Mississippi ($56,447). Many households have two earners, so one paycheck at this level falls short of what a typical local household brings in.

Common questions

Dining Room Attendant pay in Mississippi, answered

How much does a dining room attendant make in Mississippi?

The median wage for dining room attendants in Mississippi is $23,180 a year, or $11.15 an hour.

Half earn more than that and half earn less. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey for May 2025.

What is the average dining room attendant salary in Mississippi?

BLS’s mean (average) wage for dining room attendants in Mississippi is $24,480 a year. The median is $23,180.

The mean sits higher when a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. For a typical paycheck, the median is the better middle.

What is the hourly pay for a dining room attendant in Mississippi?

The median hourly wage is $11.15. At a full-time year that lines up with about $23,180 a year.

BLS May 2025; hourly and annual figures come from the same survey.

What is the starting salary for a dining room attendant in Mississippi?

BLS does not publish starting pay. The closest figure it does publish is the low end of the range: in Mississippi, the lowest-paid 10% of dining room attendants earn under $16,880 a year and a quarter earn under $20,690 ($8.12 and $9.95 an hour).

New hires often start somewhere in that band, but the May 2025 survey does not record experience, so read it as a floor to compare an offer against rather than a typical first salary.

What is the salary range for a dining room attendant in Mississippi?

The overall salary range for dining room attendants in Mississippi spans from $16,880 for the bottom 10% to $30,840 for top earners.

The middle 50% earn between $20,690 and $28,210 a year, with the overall median at $23,180.

What is the take-home pay for a dining room attendant in Mississippi?

On the median wage of $23,180, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $20,504 a year, or roughly $1,709 a month.

That is after federal, state and FICA tax, an effective rate of 11.6%.

Mississippi takes $195 of it in state income tax.

How much does a dining room attendant make a month in Mississippi?

On the median annual salary of $23,180, estimated take-home pay is roughly $1,709 a month after federal, state, and FICA taxes.

For workers paid on a standard biweekly schedule (26 pay periods per year), each paycheck is approximately $789 net.

Do dining room attendants earn more in Mississippi than in the rest of the country?

No. The median in Mississippi is 31.8% below the national median of $33,980.

Nominal pay is only half the comparison: prices in Mississippi sit at 87 against a national 100, so the gap in what the money buys is different from the gap in the salary.

Is $23,180 a good salary in Mississippi?

It is 0.41 times the median household income of $56,447. A household often has more than one earner, so a single salary at this level goes further than the ratio alone suggests.

Prices in Mississippi run at 87 against a national average of 100, with rents at 56.5, so $23,180 here buys about what $26,658 buys at national average prices.

What do the highest-paid dining room attendants earn in Mississippi?

The top tenth earn $30,840 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $16,880.

Experience, specialty, employer and the part of Mississippi someone works in all move a wage inside that range; the survey reports the spread, not the reason for it.

How many dining room attendants are there in Mississippi?

The survey counted 2,620 of these jobs in Mississippi for May 2025.

That makes the occupation 35% less concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.

Sources

Where this data comes from

Notice a discrepancy with official data? Report an issue to hello@costanswer.com ↗