Bill and Account Collectors in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,058
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$10,872
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,800
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$57,930
Kept after tax
$47,058
Worth in national money
$41,800
State rank
4
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for bill and account collectors is strong here. California's middle earner gets $57,930, putting the state 4 of 51 — about 23.18% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Bill and account collectors ranks 317 among 492 occupations California publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $57,930, tax leaves $47,058 — and because California is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $41,800 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $59,590, since top earners drag the number up.
- For bill and account collectors, California sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $57,930, ranking 4 of 51 and running about 23.18% 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.
- Position 317 of 492 in California places bill and account collectors 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.
- After tax, $47,058 remains from the California median of $57,930 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $41,800 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $59,590 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Bill and Account Collectors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,520 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,930 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,440 |
| This salary | $57,930 |
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 California | $47,058 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,727 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,344 |
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 | $55,854 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,091 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $57,930 as a midpoint for California, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $38,520 and the ninetieth is $81,440 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $47,058 take-home in California comes from $57,930. 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 317 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of California, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $41,800, the adjusted value of that $57,930 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 317 of 492 in the state.
- The California median of $57,930 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $38,520 to $81,440. 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 $47,058, from $57,930, assumes a single California 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 317 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 4 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for California, so $41,800 — the adjusted value of that $57,930 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 317 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $38,520 and the top tenth $81,440 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. California costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $41,800 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 California adds its own income tax on top — which is why $47,058 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.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($38,520) and the ninetieth ($81,440) 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?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $41,800 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 $47,058 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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.