Crossing Guards and Flaggers in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,499
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$4,701
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,130
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the bottom tenth percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$31,200
Kept after tax
$26,499
Worth in national money
$26,130
State rank
45
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Rhode Island is among the lower-paying states for crossing guards and flaggers. The middle earner takes $31,200, ranking 45 of 49 states — about 18.11% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Measured against other jobs in Rhode Island, this one sits low: 450 of 452 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $31,200, tax leaves $26,499, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $26,130 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $41,320, since top earners drag the number up.
- Rhode Island ranks 45 of 49 for crossing guards and flaggers, with a median of $31,200 — about 18.11% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Crossing guards and flaggers occupies position 450 of 452 in Rhode Island's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for crossing guards and flaggers — median $31,200 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $26,499 retained, $26,130 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $41,320 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: Crossing Guards and Flaggers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $31,200 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,370 |
| This salary | $31,200 |
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 Rhode Island | $26,499 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,249 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,911 |
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 | $30,267 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,311 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 crossing guards and flaggers in Rhode Island earn under $31,200 and half over. The published range runs $31,200 at the tenth percentile to $62,370 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Rhode Island's $26,499, worked from $31,200. 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 450 of 452.
- Two cautions on $26,130, the adjusted value of that $31,200 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Rhode Island. 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 450 of 452 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for crossing guards and flaggers in Rhode Island, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,200 to $62,370; 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.
- The Rhode Island take-home of $26,499, on $31,200 for work ranking 450 of 452 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 450 of 452 in the state.
- This $26,130 adjusted figure, worked from $31,200, 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 450 of 452 in the state. The occupation ranks 450 of 452 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 $41,320 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $31,200 at the bottom tenth to $62,370 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $26,130 of national purchasing power.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $26,499 of this wage survives to your account.
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.
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 Rhode Island is $41,320. 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 ($31,200) and the ninetieth ($62,370) 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?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $26,130 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 $26,499 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.