Compensation and Benefits Managers in Alabama
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$87,277
after federal, FICA and Alabama tax
Tax takes
$31,193
26.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$97,007
Alabama costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Alabama — 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
$118,470
Kept after tax
$87,277
Worth in national money
$97,007
State rank
32
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Alabama. The middle earner gets $118,470. That is 32 of 45 states, and about 20.61% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 482 occupations Alabama reports, this job comes in at 25 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $118,470 you keep $87,277 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $97,007 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $128,960, since top earners drag the number up.
- For compensation and benefits managers, Alabama sits in the lower band at $118,470, ranking 32 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 20.61%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Compensation and benefits managers ranks 25 of 482 occupations by median in Alabama, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Retained pay in Alabama is $87,277 after the full tax stack, from $118,470. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $97,007 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $128,960 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Compensation and Benefits Managers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $84,090 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $118,470 |
| Top tenth earn over | $205,840 |
| This salary | $118,470 |
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 Alabama | $87,277 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $92,174 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,153 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $111,509 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,974 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Alabama earn less than $118,470. The published range is $84,090 up to $205,840, 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 Alabama's $87,277, worked from $118,470. 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 25 of 482.
- Two cautions on $97,007, the adjusted value of that $118,470 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alabama. 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 25 of 482 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for compensation and benefits managers in Alabama the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $84,090 to $205,840. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Alabama take-home of $87,277, on $118,470 for work ranking 25 of 482 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 25 of 482 in the state.
- This $97,007 adjusted figure, worked from $118,470, 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 25 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 25 of 482 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 $128,960, 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 $84,090, the highest tenth $205,840, 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. Alabama is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $97,007 in national terms.
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 Alabama adds its own income tax on top — which is why $87,277 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 45 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Alabama is $128,960. 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 ($84,090) and the ninetieth ($205,840) 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?
Alabama'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 $97,007 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 $87,277 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Alabama 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.