Bakers in Rhode Island

Racks of fresh sourdough loaves cooling in a bakery before it opens.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$31,815

after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax

Tax takes

$6,325

16.6% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$31,372

Rhode Island costs more than average

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

$38,140

Kept after tax

$31,815

Worth in national money

$31,372

State rank

15

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for bakers is strong here. Rhode Island's middle earner gets $38,140, putting the state 15 of 51 — about 2.64% ahead of the national figure.
  • Against 452 occupations Rhode Island publishes, bakers lands at 400. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
  • Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $38,140, tax leaves $31,815, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $31,372 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $42,010, since top earners drag the number up.
  • For bakers, Rhode Island sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $38,140, ranking 15 of 51 and running about 2.64% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
  • Within Rhode Island, this work ranks 400 of 452 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.
  • Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for bakers — median $38,140 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $31,815 retained, $31,372 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $42,010 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Bakers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$32,470
Half earn under$38,140
Top tenth earn over$58,360
This salary$38,140

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

Compare with
+$1,010take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Rhode Island$31,815
Take-home in Texas$32,825
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$2,408

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

Moving to
$0now · $38,140$35,228
$35,228in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$36,883
You could take a cut of−$2,912
Prices in Texas97 vs 101

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $38,140 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $32,470 and the ninetieth is $58,360 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • That $31,815 take-home in Rhode Island comes from $38,140. 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 400 of 452.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $31,372 uses one figure for the whole of Rhode Island. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 452 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 400.
  • The Rhode Island median of $38,140 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $32,470 to $58,360. 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 $31,815, from $38,140, assumes a single Rhode Island 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 400 of 452 locally, and the state ranks 15 of 51 for it.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $31,372, worked from $38,140, 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 Rhode Island address, on work sitting at 400 of 452 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $42,010, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $32,470 and the top tenth $58,360, so most people doing this work in Rhode Island sit within a fairly tight band.

Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?

A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $31,372 of national purchasing power.

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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $31,815 of this wage survives to your account.

Can I compare this job across every state?

All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.

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 Rhode Island is $42,010. 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 ($32,470 to $58,360) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.

How does the state price level affect real compensation?

Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $31,372 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 $31,815 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.