Correctional Officers and Jailers in New Mexico
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,606
after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax
Tax takes
$8,334
17.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,818
New Mexico costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Mexico — 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
$47,940
Kept after tax
$39,606
Worth in national money
$43,818
State rank
40
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. New Mexico pays this job a middle wage of $47,940, 40 of 49 states and about 18.66% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in New Mexico, this sits in the middle: 301 of 485 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where New Mexico does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $47,940 you keep $39,606, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $43,818 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $48,570, because the best-paid pull it up.
- New Mexico's $47,940 median for correctional officers and jailers places it 40 of 49 states, about 18.66% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Correctional officers and jailers ranks 301 of 485 occupations in New Mexico 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.
- After federal, FICA and New Mexico income tax, retained pay for correctional officers and jailers on $47,940 is $39,606. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $43,818 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $48,570 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Correctional Officers and Jailers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,900 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $59,330 |
| This salary | $47,940 |
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 New Mexico | $39,606 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,700 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,935 |
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 | $46,578 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,341 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $47,940 as a midpoint for New Mexico, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,900 and the ninetieth is $59,330 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind New Mexico's $39,606, worked from $47,940. 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 301 of 485.
- Two cautions on $43,818, the adjusted value of that $47,940 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Mexico. 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 301 of 485 locally.
- The New Mexico median of $47,940 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,900 to $59,330. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The New Mexico take-home of $39,606, on $47,940 for work ranking 301 of 485 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 301 of 485 in the state.
- This $43,818 adjusted figure, worked from $47,940, 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 301 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 301 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $37,900 at the bottom tenth to $59,330 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in New Mexico sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $43,818 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 New Mexico's own levy, $39,606 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 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($37,900 to $59,330) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Mexico rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
New Mexico'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 $43,818 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 $39,606 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Mexico 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.