Bartenders in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,711
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$6,729
18.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,374
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$37,440
Kept after tax
$30,711
Worth in national money
$28,374
State rank
14
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Massachusetts is one of the better-paying states for bartenders. The middle earner takes $37,440, which ranks 14 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 9.03% above the national middle.
- Against 485 occupations Massachusetts publishes, bartenders lands at 463. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $37,440, tax leaves $30,711 — and because Massachusetts is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $28,374 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $45,120, since top earners drag the number up.
- Massachusetts ranks 14 of 51 states publishing a median for bartenders, at $37,440 — about 9.03% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Within Massachusetts, this work ranks 463 of 485 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, $30,711 remains from the Massachusetts median of $37,440 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $28,374 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $45,120 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Bartenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,890 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,440 |
| Top tenth earn over | $70,870 |
| This salary | $37,440 |
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 Massachusetts | $30,711 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,263 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,827 |
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 | $35,508 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,838 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $37,440 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $31,890 and the ninetieth is $70,870 — 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 Massachusetts's $30,711, worked from $37,440. 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 463 of 485.
- One number stands for prices across all of Massachusetts, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $28,374, the adjusted value of that $37,440 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 463 of 485 in the state.
- The Massachusetts median of $37,440 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $31,890 to $70,870. 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 Massachusetts take-home of $30,711, on $37,440 for work ranking 463 of 485 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 463 of 485 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Massachusetts, so $28,374 — the adjusted value of that $37,440 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 463 of 485 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 $45,120, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $31,890 at the bottom tenth to $70,870 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. Massachusetts costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $28,374 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 Massachusetts adds its own income tax on top — which is why $30,711 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 Massachusetts is $45,120. 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 ($31,890) and the ninetieth ($70,870) 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?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $28,374 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 $30,711 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.