Animal Caretakers in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,768
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$7,362
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,170
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$40,130
Kept after tax
$32,768
Worth in national money
$30,170
State rank
3
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Hawaii pays animal caretakers a middle wage of $40,130, ranking 3 of 51 states and sitting about 13.49% above the national middle.
- Against 437 occupations Hawaii publishes, animal caretakers lands at 401. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $40,130, tax leaves $32,768 — and because Hawaii is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $30,170 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $44,620, since top earners drag the number up.
- Hawaii's median for animal caretakers is $40,130, about 13.49% above the national figure and 3 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Hawaii, this work ranks 401 of 437 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After tax, $32,768 remains from the Hawaii median of $40,130 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $30,170 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $44,620 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Animal Caretakers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,100 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,130 |
| Top tenth earn over | $66,200 |
| This salary | $40,130 |
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 Hawaii | $32,768 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,424 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,255 |
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 | $38,068 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,355 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $40,130 as a midpoint for Hawaii, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $31,100 and the ninetieth is $66,200 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Hawaii's $32,768, worked from $40,130. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 401 of 437.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $30,170 uses one figure for the whole of Hawaii. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 437 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 401.
- The Hawaii median of $40,130 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $31,100 to $66,200. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Hawaii take-home of $32,768, on $40,130 for work ranking 401 of 437 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 401 of 437 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $30,170, worked from $40,130, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Hawaii address, on work sitting at 401 of 437 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $44,620 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $31,100 at the bottom tenth to $66,200 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Hawaii costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $30,170 rather than its face figure.
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 Hawaii adds its own income tax on top — which is why $32,768 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Hawaii is $44,620. 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 ($31,100) and the ninetieth ($66,200) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $30,170 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $32,768 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.