Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity in Michigan
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,700
after federal, FICA and Michigan tax
Tax takes
$8,960
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,090
Michigan costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Michigan — 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
$47,660
Kept after tax
$38,700
Worth in national money
$41,090
State rank
37
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Michigan pays this job a middle wage of $47,660, 37 of 51 states and about 19.29% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Michigan, this sits in the middle: 327 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $47,660 you keep $38,700 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $41,090 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $49,340, since top earners drag the number up.
- Michigan's $47,660 median for bus drivers, transit and intercity places it 37 of 51 states, about 19.29% 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.
- Bus drivers, transit and intercity ranks 327 of 493 occupations in Michigan 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.
- Retained pay in Michigan is $38,700 after the full tax stack, from $47,660. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $41,090 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $49,340 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,020 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,660 |
| Top tenth earn over | $65,710 |
| This salary | $47,660 |
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 Michigan | $38,700 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,475 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$562 |
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 | $45,451 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$679 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of bus drivers, transit and intercity in Michigan earn under $47,660 and half over. The published range runs $38,020 at the tenth percentile to $65,710 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $38,700 take-home in Michigan comes from $47,660. 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 327 of 493.
- Two cautions on $41,090, the adjusted value of that $47,660 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Michigan. 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 327 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for bus drivers, transit and intercity in Michigan, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $38,020 to $65,710; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $38,700, from $47,660, assumes a single Michigan 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 327 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 37 of 51 for it.
- This $41,090 adjusted figure, worked from $47,660, 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 327 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 327 of 493 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 $49,340 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $38,020 and the top tenth $65,710, so most people doing this work in Michigan sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Michigan sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $41,090 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 Michigan's own levy, $38,700 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Michigan is $49,340. 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 ($38,020 to $65,710) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Michigan rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Michigan'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 $41,090 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 $38,700 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Michigan 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.