Couriers and Messengers
What the pay figures show
- For once the obvious answer is right. Nevada pays couriers and messengers best, at $46,520. It keeps that lead after tax. It keeps it after local prices too — $40,791 in comparable money. Most jobs are not this tidy.
- The nominal leader for couriers and messengers is also the real leader: Nevada at $46,520, holding through tax and through price deflation to $40,791. Both adjustments leave the ordering at the top intact, which indicates a wage premium large enough to dominate the state's tax burden and price level rather than merely offset them.
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Pay by state · May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
National median
$39,200
People doing it
68,640
Highest paid
$46,520
NV
Best off, really
$40,791
NV, after tax and prices
Lowest tenth
$31,550
Highest tenth
$50,330
Lowest, really
$29,121
HI
States with data
51
National average
$40,970
mean, not median
Prices where it goes furthest
96.98%
NV, against a national 100
Where this job actually pays best
- Nationally, this job pays within a fairly narrow band. Adjust for tax and for local prices and the band tightens again, to between $29,121 and $40,791. Geography is not the main lever on pay here.
- Only 68,640 people do this job in the whole country. It is a small field, so the pay figures rest on fewer reports.
- Coverage is complete — all 51 jurisdictions publish this, on a middle wage of $39,200. Nothing is missing.
- Wages for couriers and messengers cluster comparatively tightly across states, and the clustering strengthens after tax and price deflation — a real range of $29,121 to $40,791. Occupation-level factors such as specialisation and employer type therefore explain more of an individual's pay here than location does.
- National employment in couriers and messengers is 68,640. ⚠️ At this headcount the state-level medians rest on comparatively thin samples, and year-to-year movement in any one state reflects sampling as much as wages.
- Coverage for couriers and messengers is complete at 51 jurisdictions. No suppression applies, so the highest and lowest figures above are genuinely the national extremes.
Pay band: Couriers and Messengers
The national median for this job
50thpercentile, roughly
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,550 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,200 |
| Top tenth earn over | $50,330 |
| This salary | $39,200 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
Where these numbers come from
| BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates, time-series bulk download (oe.data.0.Current) | as of 2025-05-01 |
|---|
Steps in Couriers and Messengers
The national median for this job
$39,200around the 50th percentile
| Lowest tenth | $31,550 |
|---|---|
| Middle | $39,200 |
| Top tenth | $50,330 |
The five points BLS publishes. Nothing between them is invented.
Couriers and Messengers, state by state
The national median for this job
51states publish pay for this job
| Lowest | South Dakota · $31,650 |
|---|---|
| Highest | Nevada · $46,520 |
| Spread | $14,870 |
One dot per state that publishes this job. A missing state means suppressed data, not zero pay.
Best paid, and best off
The national median for this job
| Texas pays | $39,260 |
|---|---|
| Worth, after local prices | $40,401 |
Median pay against the same pay once BEA price parities are applied.
Every state, three ways
Sorted by what the money is actually worth. "Kept" is take-home for a single filer after federal, FICA and state income tax. "Really worth" divides that by the state's own price level, so a dollar in each row buys the same thing. Tap a state to put your own salary into it. States BLS does not publish for this job are absent — that means no published figure, not no work.
| State | Median pay | Kept after tax | Really worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| NV | $46,520 | $39,559 | $40,791 |
| VT | $45,600 | $37,548 | $38,856 |
| MO | $41,410 | $34,444 | $37,536 |
| TN | $40,270 | $34,537 | $37,331 |
| MN | $44,860 | $36,644 | $37,233 |
| ND | $38,090 | $32,785 | $37,015 |
| MT | $40,080 | $33,257 | $36,853 |
| CO | $45,140 | $37,172 | $36,666 |
| UT | $42,840 | $34,696 | $36,521 |
| OK | $38,910 | $32,194 | $36,465 |
| WA | $46,500 | $39,543 | $36,424 |
| IA | $38,460 | $32,233 | $36,312 |
| NM | $38,570 | $32,480 | $35,935 |
| AR | $37,070 | $31,053 | $35,896 |
| OH | $38,320 | $32,633 | $35,543 |
| ME | $41,710 | $34,185 | $35,207 |
| AK | $41,720 | $35,702 | $35,100 |
| TX | $39,260 | $33,725 | $34,706 |
| KS | $38,370 | $31,158 | $34,633 |
| NC | $39,100 | $32,545 | $34,572 |
| MS | $35,780 | $29,590 | $33,898 |
| PA | $39,700 | $32,860 | $33,703 |
| IN | $37,270 | $31,056 | $33,690 |
| GA | $39,400 | $32,471 | $33,579 |
| SC | $36,710 | $31,244 | $33,532 |
| OR | $45,170 | $35,072 | $33,491 |
| DC | $45,210 | $36,960 | $33,356 |
| MI | $37,940 | $31,303 | $33,236 |
| CA | $44,970 | $37,379 | $33,202 |
| WI | $36,910 | $30,871 | $33,160 |
| NH | $40,630 | $34,826 | $33,059 |
| KY | $35,880 | $29,871 | $33,019 |
| ID | $36,110 | $30,134 | $32,960 |
| WV | $34,890 | $29,332 | $32,674 |
| AZ | $38,980 | $32,928 | $32,569 |
| LA | $33,490 | $28,471 | $32,227 |
| NE | $34,600 | $29,110 | $32,210 |
| IL | $39,100 | $31,806 | $32,175 |
| DE | $38,760 | $31,739 | $31,978 |
| AL | $34,820 | $28,684 | $31,882 |
| MA | $42,380 | $34,433 | $31,813 |
| NJ | $40,870 | $34,306 | $31,507 |
| CT | $39,480 | $32,601 | $31,441 |
| FL | $37,740 | $32,504 | $31,419 |
| SD | $31,650 | $27,611 | $31,342 |
| VA | $37,820 | $31,154 | $30,923 |
| MD | $39,140 | $32,133 | $30,908 |
| WY | $31,680 | $27,635 | $30,419 |
| RI | $36,810 | $30,796 | $30,368 |
| NY | $38,740 | $31,813 | $29,558 |
| HI | $38,580 | $31,628 | $29,121 |
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle of the range, not a starting salary and not an offer. Half of couriers and messengers earn less than the figures here and half earn more, and experience, employer and city move an individual a long way from the middle. Nationally the middle earns $39,200.
- One filer, no dependants, nothing paid into a pension before tax — that is the household behind every take-home figure for couriers and messengers. It is the simplest case on purpose, so the states can be compared against each other rather than against each other's family circumstances. City income taxes are not counted. On that household, Nevada keeps the most at $39,559.
- One price figure per state stands behind the real-terms numbers for couriers and messengers. Inside any state, a big city costs far more than a small town, so this is a fair way to compare states with each other and a poor way to price a specific move. The wage figures and the price figures are also from different years. At the bottom of the range sits Hawaii, on $29,121.
- Figures are medians of the published wage distribution for couriers and messengers, not entry-level or offer wages. The national median is $39,200, with half of workers below it; dispersion within a state routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, driven by tenure, employer size, sector and metropolitan area. An individual's position in the distribution is not predictable from geography alone.
- The household modeled for couriers and messengers is a single filer, standard deduction, no dependants, no pre-tax contributions. Holding the household constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful; it also means the absolute figures overstate liability for most real filers. On that basis Nevada retains the most, $39,559. Municipal and school-district income taxes are not included in any state.
- Real-terms results for couriers and messengers rest on statewide regional price parities, which average over intra-state variation that is itself larger than much of the interstate variation. They support comparison between states and not the pricing of an individual relocation; Hawaii anchors the distribution at $29,121. Wage and price series are published on separate cycles and therefore carry different reference periods.