Buyers and Purchasing Agents in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$66,686
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$19,554
22.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$65,757
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$86,240
Kept after tax
$66,686
Worth in national money
$65,757
State rank
5
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for buyers and purchasing agents is strong here. Rhode Island's middle earner gets $86,240, putting the state 5 of 51 — about 10.98% ahead of the national figure.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 452 occupations Rhode Island reports figures for, this is number 126.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $86,240 the take-home is $66,686, which is worth about $65,757 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is lower, $84,820, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- For buyers and purchasing agents, Rhode Island sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $86,240, ranking 5 of 51 and running about 10.98% 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.
- In Rhode Island's occupational distribution, buyers and purchasing agents sits at 126 of 452 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Rhode Island's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for buyers and purchasing agents on its $86,240 median: $66,686 retained after tax becomes $65,757 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $84,820 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
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Pay band: Buyers and Purchasing Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $52,000 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $86,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $121,760 |
| This salary | $86,240 |
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 Rhode Island | $66,686 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $69,500 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,763 |
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 | $82,240 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,960 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 buyers and purchasing agents in Rhode Island earn under $86,240 and half over. The published range runs $52,000 at the tenth percentile to $121,760 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Rhode Island the take-home figure of $66,686, from $86,240, 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 452 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $65,757, the adjusted value of that $86,240 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Rhode Island. 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 452 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for buyers and purchasing agents in Rhode Island, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $52,000 to $121,760; 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.
- Take-home for Rhode Island is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $66,686 from $86,240. 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 452 locally.
- This $65,757 adjusted figure, worked from $86,240, 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 452 in the state. The occupation ranks 126 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $52,000 at the bottom tenth to $121,760 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Rhode Island costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $65,757 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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $66,686 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 ($52,000) and the ninetieth ($121,760) 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?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $65,757 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 $66,686 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.