Advertising Sales Agents in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,597
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$11,843
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,049
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$61,440
Kept after tax
$49,597
Worth in national money
$54,049
State rank
18
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Missouri sits in the middle of the pack for advertising sales agents. The median is $61,440, ranking 18 of 48 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Advertising sales agents ranks 192 among 488 occupations Missouri publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $61,440 you keep $49,597 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $54,049 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $75,940, since top earners drag the number up.
- Missouri occupies the middle band for advertising sales agents: a median of $61,440, ranking 18 of 48. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Position 192 of 488 in Missouri places advertising sales agents in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Retained pay in Missouri is $49,597 after the full tax stack, from $61,440. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $54,049 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $75,940 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Advertising Sales Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,020 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,440 |
| Top tenth earn over | $128,300 |
| This salary | $61,440 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Missouri | $49,597 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,547 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,004 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $59,013 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,214 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,440 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,020 and the ninetieth is $128,300 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $49,597 take-home in Missouri comes from $61,440. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 192 of 488.
- One number stands for prices across all of Missouri, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $54,049, the adjusted value of that $61,440 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 192 of 488 in the state.
- The Missouri median of $61,440 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,020 to $128,300. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $49,597, from $61,440, assumes a single Missouri filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 192 of 488 locally, and the state ranks 18 of 48 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Missouri, so $54,049 — the adjusted value of that $61,440 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 192 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $75,940, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $37,020 and the top tenth $128,300 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $54,049.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Missouri adds its own income tax on top — which is why $49,597 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 48 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Missouri is $75,940. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($37,020) and the ninetieth ($128,300) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $54,049 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $49,597 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.