Cargo and Freight Agents in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$46,715
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$11,965
20.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,160
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$58,680
Kept after tax
$46,715
Worth in national money
$43,160
State rank
11
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Massachusetts pays cargo and freight agents a middle wage of $58,680, ranking 11 of 48 states and sitting about 12.28% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Massachusetts, this sits in the middle: 305 of 485 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Massachusetts is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $58,680 the take-home is $46,715; in national-average money that behaves like $43,160. The average comes to $61,210, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Massachusetts's median for cargo and freight agents is $58,680, about 12.28% above the national figure and 11 of 48 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Cargo and freight agents ranks 305 of 485 occupations in Massachusetts 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.
- Take-home for cargo and freight agents in Massachusetts, on $58,680, is $46,715; deflated by the state's price level, $43,160. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $61,210 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Cargo and Freight Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,240 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,680 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,860 |
| This salary | $58,680 |
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 Massachusetts | $46,715 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,329 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,604 |
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 | $55,427 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,196 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $58,680 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $49,240 and the ninetieth is $75,860 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Massachusetts the take-home figure of $46,715, from $58,680, 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 305 of 485 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $43,160, the adjusted value of that $58,680 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Massachusetts. 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 305 of 485 locally.
- The Massachusetts median of $58,680 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $49,240 to $75,860. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Massachusetts is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $46,715 from $58,680. 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 305 of 485 locally.
- This $43,160 adjusted figure, worked from $58,680, 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 305 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 305 of 485 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 $61,210 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 $49,240 and the top tenth $75,860, so most people doing this work in Massachusetts sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Massachusetts run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $43,160 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Massachusetts then takes its own share, leaving $46,715.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 Massachusetts is $61,210. 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 ($49,240 to $75,860) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Massachusetts rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $43,160 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 $46,715 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.