Baggage Porters and Bellhops in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,418
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$4,382
14.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,789
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
$30,800
Kept after tax
$26,418
Worth in national money
$28,789
State rank
34
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Missouri pays baggage porters and bellhops a middle wage of $30,800, 34 of 48 states and about 16.94% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Missouri this is lower-paid work. Of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, baggage porters and bellhops ranks 475. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $30,800 you keep $26,418 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $28,789 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $34,620, since top earners drag the number up.
- Missouri's $30,800 median for baggage porters and bellhops places it 34 of 48 states, about 16.94% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Missouri reports, baggage porters and bellhops ranks 475 of 488, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Missouri is $26,418 after the full tax stack, from $30,800. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $28,789 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $34,620 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Baggage Porters and Bellhops
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $30,800 |
| Top tenth earn over | $48,570 |
| This salary | $30,800 |
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 | $26,418 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $26,928 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,079 |
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 | $30,165 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,304 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Missouri earn less than $30,800. The published range is $28,600 up to $48,570, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Missouri's $26,418, worked from $30,800. 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 475 of 488.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $28,789 uses one figure for the whole of Missouri. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 475.
- Reported values are medians; for baggage porters and bellhops in Missouri the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $28,600 to $48,570. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Missouri take-home of $26,418, on $30,800 for work ranking 475 of 488 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 475 of 488 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $28,789, worked from $30,800, 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 Missouri address, on work sitting at 475 of 488 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 $34,620 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $28,600 at the tenth percentile, $48,570 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Missouri sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $28,789 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Missouri's own levy, $26,418 remains.
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 $34,620. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($28,600 to $48,570) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Missouri rather than a national figure.
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 $28,789 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 $26,418 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.