Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria in Iowa earn a median of $35,810 a year (4% below the U.S. median of $37,450), based on about 8,860 jobs. Pay for the same job differs a lot by employer, experience, industry and city within Iowa. These are wages of employees in the occupation, not a forecast for any individual.
Median annual pay
$35,810
4% below the U.S. median of $37,450
Average annual pay
$35,260
Mean wage
Pay range
$28,030–$44,150
10th to 90th percentile
Jobs in the state
8,860
Employees, May 2025
Median hourly pay
$17.22
Before taxes
The state's price level is 87.8 (U.S. average = 100), so a median of $35,810 here equals roughly $40,786 after adjusting for the state's price level.
Explore more: cooks, institution and cafeteria salary in every state · about this career · Iowa earnings by education and major · Iowa counties
Fields of study linked to this career by the federal CIP-to-SOC crosswalk (U.S. Department of Education, NCES, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics; a classification crosswalk, and many workers entered by other routes): Culinary Arts and Related Services · Foods, Nutrition, and Related Services
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025, state estimates (employees only; self-employed workers are not included); price-level adjustment uses the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities (where 100 is the U.S. average; MajorPays' calculation). Wages are for an occupation in a state as a whole and vary widely by employer, experience, industry and place within the state. MajorPays selected and reorganized these figures; neither agency has approved or endorsed this presentation. See Data sources for each dataset's terms.