Court, Municipal, and License Clerks in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,825
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$8,005
17.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,769
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$44,830
Kept after tax
$36,825
Worth in national money
$37,769
State rank
38
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Pennsylvania pays court, municipal, and license clerks a middle wage of $44,830, 38 of 51 states and about 7.95% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Pennsylvania this is lower-paid work. Of 492 occupations the state publishes figures for, court, municipal, and license clerks ranks 382. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- No great distortion either way. Pennsylvania costs about what the country costs, so from $44,830, take-home of $36,825 is worth roughly $37,769 in national money. The average comes to $49,180, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Pennsylvania's $44,830 median for court, municipal, and license clerks places it 38 of 51 states, about 7.95% 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.
- Against every occupation Pennsylvania reports, court, municipal, and license clerks ranks 382 of 492, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Price parity in Pennsylvania is near the national base, so for court, municipal, and license clerks, whose median is $44,830, the adjusted figure of $37,769 differs little from $36,825 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $49,180 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Court, Municipal, and License Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,440 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,830 |
| Top tenth earn over | $67,490 |
| This salary | $44,830 |
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 Pennsylvania | $36,825 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,201 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,543 |
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 | $43,117 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,866 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
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 court, municipal, and license clerks in Pennsylvania earn under $44,830 and half over. The published range runs $35,440 at the tenth percentile to $67,490 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $36,825 take-home in Pennsylvania comes from $44,830. 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 382 of 492.
- Two cautions on $37,769, the adjusted value of that $44,830 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Pennsylvania. 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 382 of 492 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for court, municipal, and license clerks in Pennsylvania, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,440 to $67,490; 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 $36,825, from $44,830, assumes a single Pennsylvania 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 382 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 51 for it.
- This $37,769 adjusted figure, worked from $44,830, 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 382 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 382 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $49,180, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $35,440 and the top tenth $67,490, so most people doing this work in Pennsylvania sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Pennsylvania is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $37,769 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 Pennsylvania adds its own income tax on top — which is why $36,825 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 Pennsylvania is $49,180. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($35,440 to $67,490) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Pennsylvania rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Pennsylvania'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 $37,769 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 $36,825 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.