Counter and Rental Clerks in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,317
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$8,583
17.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,028
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$48,900
Kept after tax
$40,317
Worth in national money
$37,028
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for counter and rental clerks is strong here. New Jersey's middle earner gets $48,900, putting the state 2 of 51 — about 18.4% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in New Jersey, this sits in the middle: 367 of 490 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- New Jersey is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $48,900 the take-home is $40,317; in national-average money that behaves like $37,028. The average comes to $52,020, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For counter and rental clerks, New Jersey sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $48,900, ranking 2 of 51 and running about 18.4% 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.
- Counter and rental clerks ranks 367 of 490 occupations in New Jersey 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 counter and rental clerks in New Jersey, on $48,900, is $40,317; deflated by the state's price level, $37,028. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $52,020 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Counter and Rental Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,540 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,900 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,520 |
| This salary | $48,900 |
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 Jersey | $40,317 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,471 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,649 |
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 | $47,464 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,832 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $48,900 as a midpoint for New Jersey, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,540 and the ninetieth is $75,520 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In New Jersey the take-home figure of $40,317, from $48,900, 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 367 of 490 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $37,028 uses one figure for the whole of New Jersey. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 490 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 367.
- The New Jersey median of $48,900 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,540 to $75,520. 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 New Jersey is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $40,317 from $48,900. 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 367 of 490 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $37,028, worked from $48,900, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular New Jersey address, on work sitting at 367 of 490 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 $52,020 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $35,540, the highest tenth $75,520, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $37,028 of national purchasing power.
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; New Jersey then takes its own share, leaving $40,317.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 New Jersey is $52,020. 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 ($35,540) and the ninetieth ($75,520) 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?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $37,028 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 $40,317 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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.