Broadcast Announcers and Radio Disc Jockeys in Alabama
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,500
after federal, FICA and Alabama tax
Tax takes
$7,030
18.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,011
Alabama costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Alabama — 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
$38,530
Kept after tax
$31,500
Worth in national money
$35,011
State rank
34
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Alabama pays this job a middle wage of $38,530, 34 of 47 states and about 18.61% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Alabama, this sits in the middle: 361 of 482 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Alabama is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $38,530 the take-home is $31,500; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $35,011 would nationally. The average comes to $46,020, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Alabama's $38,530 median for broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys places it 34 of 47 states, about 18.61% 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.
- Broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys ranks 361 of 482 occupations in Alabama by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Post-tax income for broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys in Alabama, on $38,530, is $31,500 — equivalent to $35,011 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $46,020 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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: Broadcast Announcers and Radio Disc Jockeys
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $21,170 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,530 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,230 |
| This salary | $38,530 |
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 Alabama | $31,500 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,139 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$909 |
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 | $36,490 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,099 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Alabama earn less than $38,530. The published range is $21,170 up to $76,230, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $31,500 take-home in Alabama comes from $38,530. 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 361 of 482.
- Two cautions on $35,011, the adjusted value of that $38,530 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alabama. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 361 of 482 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys in Alabama the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $21,170 to $76,230. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $31,500, from $38,530, assumes a single Alabama 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 361 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 34 of 47 for it.
- This $35,011 adjusted figure, worked from $38,530, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 361 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 361 of 482 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 $46,020, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $21,170, the highest tenth $76,230, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Alabama is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $35,011 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Alabama then takes its own share, leaving $31,500.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 Alabama is $46,020. 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 ($21,170) and the ninetieth ($76,230) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Alabama'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 $35,011 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 $31,500 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Alabama 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.