Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$63,874
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$19,866
23.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$59,013
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
$83,740
Kept after tax
$63,874
Worth in national money
$59,013
State rank
11
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Massachusetts's middle earner gets $83,740, putting the state 11 of 51 — about 7.36% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Massachusetts, this sits in the middle: 165 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 $83,740 the take-home is $63,874; in national-average money that behaves like $59,013. The average comes to $88,750, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators, Massachusetts sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $83,740, ranking 11 of 51 and running about 7.36% 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.
- Claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators ranks 165 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 claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators in Massachusetts, on $83,740, is $63,874; deflated by the state's price level, $59,013. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $88,750 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $58,650 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $83,740 |
| Top tenth earn over | $123,260 |
| This salary | $83,740 |
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 | $63,874 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $67,741 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,698 |
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 | $78,243 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,777 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
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 claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators in Massachusetts earn under $83,740 and half over. The published range runs $58,650 at the tenth percentile to $123,260 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $63,874 take-home in Massachusetts comes from $83,740. 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 165 of 485.
- One number stands for prices across all of Massachusetts, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $59,013, the adjusted value of that $83,740 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 165 of 485 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators in Massachusetts, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $58,650 to $123,260; 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.
- Retained pay of $63,874, from $83,740, assumes a single Massachusetts 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 165 of 485 locally, and the state ranks 11 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Massachusetts, so $59,013 — the adjusted value of that $83,740 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 165 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $88,750, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $58,650, the highest tenth $123,260, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $59,013 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Massachusetts adds its own income tax on top — which is why $63,874 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.
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 $88,750. 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 ($58,650) and the ninetieth ($123,260) 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?
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 $59,013 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 $63,874 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.
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.