Buyers and Purchasing Agents in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$58,314
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$15,236
20.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$59,810
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$73,550
Kept after tax
$58,314
Worth in national money
$59,810
State rank
35
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Pennsylvania pays buyers and purchasing agents a middle wage of $73,550, 35 of 51 states and about 5.35% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Pennsylvania, this sits in the middle: 158 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Pennsylvania costs about what the country costs, so from $73,550, take-home of $58,314 is worth roughly $59,810 in national money. The average comes to $78,100, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Pennsylvania's $73,550 median for buyers and purchasing agents places it 35 of 51 states, about 5.35% 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.
- Buyers and purchasing agents ranks 158 of 492 occupations in Pennsylvania 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.
- Price parity in Pennsylvania is near the national base, so for buyers and purchasing agents, whose median is $73,550, the adjusted figure of $59,810 differs little from $58,314 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $78,100 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Buyers and Purchasing Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,470 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $73,550 |
| Top tenth earn over | $121,520 |
| This salary | $73,550 |
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 Pennsylvania | $58,314 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $60,572 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,524 |
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 | $70,340 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,486 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Pennsylvania earn less than $73,550. The published range is $44,470 up to $121,520, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Pennsylvania's $58,314, worked from $73,550. 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 158 of 492.
- Two cautions on $59,810, the adjusted value of that $73,550 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Pennsylvania. 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 158 of 492 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for buyers and purchasing agents in Pennsylvania the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $44,470 to $121,520. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Pennsylvania take-home of $58,314, on $73,550 for work ranking 158 of 492 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 158 of 492 in the state.
- This $59,810 adjusted figure, worked from $73,550, 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 158 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 158 of 492 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 $78,100, 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 $44,470, the highest tenth $121,520, 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. Pennsylvania is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $59,810 in national terms.
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 Pennsylvania's own levy, $58,314 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 Pennsylvania is $78,100. 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 ($44,470) and the ninetieth ($121,520) 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?
Pennsylvania'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 $59,810 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 $58,314 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.