Emergency Management Directors in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$56,890
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$17,400
23.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,381
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$74,290
Kept after tax
$56,890
Worth in national money
$52,381
State rank
38
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Hawaii. The middle earner gets $74,290. That is 38 of 47 states, and about 20.4% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 169 among 437 occupations Hawaii publishes pay for.
- Hawaii is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $74,290 the take-home is $56,890; in national-average money that behaves like $52,381. The average comes to $91,460, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For emergency management directors, Hawaii sits in the lower band at $74,290, ranking 38 of 47 and trailing the national median by about 20.4%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 169 of 437 in Hawaii places emergency management directors 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.
- Take-home for emergency management directors in Hawaii, on $74,290, is $56,890; deflated by the state's price level, $52,381. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $91,460 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Emergency Management Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $61,620 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $74,290 |
| Top tenth earn over | $142,820 |
| This salary | $74,290 |
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 Hawaii | $56,890 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,093 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,488 |
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 | $68,316 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,654 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $74,290 as a midpoint for Hawaii, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $61,620 and the ninetieth is $142,820 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $56,890 take-home in Hawaii comes from $74,290. 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 169 of 437.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $52,381 uses one figure for the whole of Hawaii. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 437 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 169.
- The Hawaii median of $74,290 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $61,620 to $142,820. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $56,890, from $74,290, assumes a single Hawaii 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 169 of 437 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 47 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $52,381, worked from $74,290, 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 Hawaii address, on work sitting at 169 of 437 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 $91,460 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $61,620 and the top tenth $142,820 — 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 $52,381 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; Hawaii then takes its own share, leaving $56,890.
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 47 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 Hawaii is $91,460. 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 ($61,620) and the ninetieth ($142,820) 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?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $52,381 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 $56,890 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.