Buyers and Purchasing Agents in North Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$59,693
after federal, FICA and North Carolina tax
Tax takes
$16,187
21.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$63,409
North Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Carolina — 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
$75,880
Kept after tax
$59,693
Worth in national money
$63,409
State rank
23
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. North Carolina pays buyers and purchasing agents around $75,880 at the midpoint, 23 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Buyers and purchasing agents ranks 126 among 489 occupations North Carolina publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $75,880 you keep $59,693 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $63,409 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $82,170, since top earners drag the number up.
- For buyers and purchasing agents the North Carolina median is $75,880, ranking 23 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 126 of 489 in North Carolina places buyers and purchasing agents 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.
- Retained pay in North Carolina is $59,693 after the full tax stack, from $75,880. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $63,409 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $82,170 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Buyers and Purchasing Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,440 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $75,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $127,860 |
| This salary | $75,880 |
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 North Carolina | $59,693 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $62,212 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$611 |
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 | $72,299 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$844 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in North Carolina earn less than $75,880. The published range is $48,440 up to $127,860, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In North Carolina the take-home figure of $59,693, from $75,880, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 126 of 489 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $63,409, the adjusted value of that $75,880 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of North Carolina. 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 126 of 489 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for buyers and purchasing agents in North Carolina the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $48,440 to $127,860. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for North Carolina is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $59,693 from $75,880. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 126 of 489 locally.
- This $63,409 adjusted figure, worked from $75,880, 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 126 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 126 of 489 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 $82,170, 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $48,440 and the top tenth $127,860 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $63,409.
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 North Carolina's own levy, $59,693 remains.
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 North Carolina is $82,170. 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 ($48,440) and the ninetieth ($127,860) 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?
North Carolina'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 $63,409 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 $59,693 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Carolina 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.