Cargo and Freight Agents in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,429
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$7,971
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,700
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$42,400
Kept after tax
$34,429
Worth in national money
$31,700
State rank
48
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for cargo and freight agents is on the low side in Hawaii. The middle earner gets $42,400. That is 48 of 48 states, and about 18.87% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 437 occupations Hawaii publishes, cargo and freight agents lands at 390. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $42,400, tax leaves $34,429 — and because Hawaii is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $31,700 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $49,980, since top earners drag the number up.
- For cargo and freight agents, Hawaii sits in the lower band at $42,400, ranking 48 of 48 and trailing the national median by about 18.87%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Hawaii, this work ranks 390 of 437 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After tax, $34,429 remains from the Hawaii median of $42,400 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $31,700 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $49,980 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Cargo and Freight Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,540 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $42,400 |
| Top tenth earn over | $68,380 |
| This salary | $42,400 |
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 Hawaii | $34,429 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,248 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,602 |
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 | $40,136 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,775 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Hawaii earn less than $42,400. The published range is $34,540 up to $68,380, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $34,429 take-home in Hawaii comes from $42,400. 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 390 of 437.
- Two cautions on $31,700, the adjusted value of that $42,400 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Hawaii. 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 390 of 437 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for cargo and freight agents in Hawaii the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $34,540 to $68,380. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $34,429, from $42,400, assumes a single Hawaii 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 390 of 437 locally, and the state ranks 48 of 48 for it.
- This $31,700 adjusted figure, worked from $42,400, 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 390 of 437 in the state. The occupation ranks 390 of 437 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 $49,980, 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $34,540 at the bottom tenth to $68,380 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. Hawaii costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $31,700 rather than its face figure.
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 Hawaii's own levy, $34,429 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 48 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 Hawaii is $49,980. 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 ($34,540) and the ninetieth ($68,380) 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?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $31,700 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 $34,429 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.