Waiters and Waitresses salary in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

The figures

The median Waiters and Waitresses in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA metro area earns $54,780 a year ($26.34 an hour), according to the BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates (full citation in Sources). The middle half of Waiters and Waitresses in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA earn between $37,150 and $72,170 a year. At the ends of the distribution, the lowest-paid 10 percent earn $33,980 or less and the top 10 percent earn $81,630 or more. BLS estimates 13,910 Waiters and Waitresses jobs in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA area — 11.512 of every 1,000 jobs in the area, a location quotient of 0.79 (below the national concentration). That is 0.6% of all Waiters and Waitresses employment in the United States (2,270,910 jobs nationally). By employment, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA is the #25 largest of the 25 covered metro areas for Waiters and Waitresses. In aggregate, Waiters and Waitresses in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA earn about $0.78 billion a year (BLS employment multiplied by the mean wage). At the mean wage, the engine's take-home is $43,604.24 a year, so the aggregate take-home of Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Waiters and Waitresses is about $0.61 billion. BLS reports a relative standard error of 5.6% for this employment estimate. Ranked by median pay, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA stands #2 of the 25 metro areas covered on this site for Waiters and Waitresses. By employment, Waiters and Waitresses is the #14 largest of the 30 covered occupations in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA. Placed against the national distribution for Waiters and Waitresses, the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median of $54,780 falls above the national 75th percentile of $47,110. Across all occupations, the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median is $60,690 a year — Waiters and Waitresses pay is 9.7% below the area's overall median.

Wages in detail

What the wage distribution says

The top 10 percent of Waiters and Waitresses in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA earn 2.4 times what the bottom 10 percent earn ($81,630 against $33,980). The middle half spans $35,020 — from $37,150 to $72,170. Hourly, the 90th percentile ($39.25) is 2.40 times the 10th ($16.34). In the upper half of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA distribution, the 75th percentile wage of $72,170 takes home $54,740.12 and the 90th percentile wage of $81,630 takes home $60,716.38 — $5,976.26 more net for $9,460 more gross. Against the median take-home of $42,623.70, the top decile keeps 1.42 times as much. The mean wage of $56,130 sits 2.5% above the median: higher-paid Waiters and Waitresses pull the average up in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA. Among the 30 covered occupations in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA, Waiters and Waitresses ranks #15 by median pay. In the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA wage ladder of covered occupations, Waiters and Waitresses sits between Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive at $55,360 and Construction Laborers at $54,240. Waiters and Waitresses accounts for 1.2% of all employment in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA metro area. The average covered metro employs 39,482 Waiters and Waitresses; Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA employs 0.4 times that.

Take-home pay on the median wage in Oregon

Single filer, no dependents, no pre-tax contributions, paid biweekly, a full year of W-2 wages in Oregon; city and local taxes are not included:

At the median, $42,623.70 of the $54,780 gross is kept ($1,639.37 per paycheck) — a deduction rate of 22.19%. The deduction rate moves with pay: 19.03% at the 10th percentile, 19.74% at the 25th percentile, 24.15% at the 75th percentile, 25.62% at the 90th percentile. Between the 25th and 75th percentile wages, annual take-home rises by $24,924.98 on a gross rise of $35,020.

The same engine at the other published points of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA wage distribution:

Across the published distribution, take-home pay runs from $27,512.50 a year at the 10th percentile to $60,716.38 at the 90th — a spread of $33,203.88 of net pay inside one occupation and one metro area.

For scale: across all occupations, the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median wage of $60,690 takes home $46,917.28 a year ($1,804.51 per paycheck, deduction rate 22.69%). The Waiters and Waitresses median take-home of $42,623.70 sits $4,293.58 (below that area-wide figure.

Multi-state metro area. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA also covers parts of Washington. The take-home estimate above uses Oregon rules — the metro area's primary state. If the job is based in another part of the metro area, the state tax changes: see the Washington paycheck calculator.

Run your own numbers

Your own withholding depends on your Form W-4, your benefits and your other income — run your exact figures through the calculator:

Take-home pay for $54,780 in Oregon

Against the national median

Nationally, the median Waiters and Waitresses earns $35,230 a year ($16.94 an hour). The Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA median of $54,780 is $19,550 (55.5%) above the national median.

The means rank the area the same way: $56,130 a year in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA against $40,060 nationally, a gap of $16,070 (40.1%).

Set against the whole local market, the Waiters and Waitresses 90th percentile of $81,630 is 60% of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA all-occupations 90th percentile ($136,920), and its 10th percentile of $33,980 is 91% of the area-wide 10th ($37,200).

Sources and method

Wage data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates (released May 15, 2026), retrieved October 27, 2026 — bls.gov/oes. OEWS figures are survey estimates for May 2025, not job offers. Take-home pay is computed by this site's paycheck engine with 2026 federal and state rules; the method, and what the engine does not model, is documented in the paycheck methodology guide. Estimates only — not tax advice.