Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$59,048
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$16,032
21.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,231
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
$75,080
Kept after tax
$59,048
Worth in national money
$54,231
State rank
2
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. New Jersey pays drywall and ceiling tile installers a middle wage of $75,080, ranking 2 of 49 states and sitting about 27.41% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Drywall and ceiling tile installers ranks 219 among 490 occupations New Jersey publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $75,080, tax leaves $59,048 — and because New Jersey is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $54,231 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $81,280, since top earners drag the number up.
- New Jersey's median for drywall and ceiling tile installers is $75,080, about 27.41% above the national figure and 2 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 219 of 490 in New Jersey places drywall and ceiling tile installers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After tax, $59,048 remains from the New Jersey median of $75,080 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $54,231 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $81,280 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $75,080 |
| Top tenth earn over | $118,200 |
| This salary | $75,080 |
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 | $59,048 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,649 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,210 |
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 | $71,384 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$12,206 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $75,080 as a midpoint for New Jersey, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,990 and the ninetieth is $118,200 — 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 Jersey's $59,048, worked from $75,080. 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 219 of 490.
- One number stands for prices across all of New Jersey, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $54,231, the adjusted value of that $75,080 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 219 of 490 in the state.
- The New Jersey median of $75,080 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,990 to $118,200. 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 Jersey take-home of $59,048, on $75,080 for work ranking 219 of 490 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 219 of 490 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for New Jersey, so $54,231 — the adjusted value of that $75,080 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 219 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $81,280, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $37,990 and the top tenth $118,200 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $54,231 of national purchasing power.
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 Jersey's own levy, $59,048 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $81,280. 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 ($37,990) and the ninetieth ($118,200) 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 $54,231 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 $59,048 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.
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.