File Clerks in New Mexico
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,818
after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax
Tax takes
$5,882
15.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,203
New Mexico costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Mexico — 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
$37,700
Kept after tax
$31,818
Worth in national money
$35,203
State rank
44
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for file clerks is on the low side in New Mexico. The middle earner gets $37,700. That is 44 of 49 states, and about 13.53% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 485 occupations New Mexico publishes, file clerks lands at 391. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $37,700 you keep $31,818 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $35,203 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $39,820, since top earners drag the number up.
- For file clerks, New Mexico sits in the lower band at $37,700, ranking 44 of 49 and trailing the national median by about 13.53%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within New Mexico, this work ranks 391 of 485 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Retained pay in New Mexico is $31,818 after the full tax stack, from $37,700. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $35,203 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $39,820 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: File Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $25,700 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $52,130 |
| This salary | $37,700 |
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 Mexico | $31,818 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,472 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,787 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $36,886 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,161 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $37,700 as a midpoint for New Mexico, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $25,700 and the ninetieth is $52,130 — 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 Mexico's $31,818, worked from $37,700. 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 391 of 485.
- Two cautions on $35,203, the adjusted value of that $37,700 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Mexico. 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 391 of 485 locally.
- The New Mexico median of $37,700 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $25,700 to $52,130. 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 Mexico take-home of $31,818, on $37,700 for work ranking 391 of 485 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 391 of 485 in the state.
- This $35,203 adjusted figure, worked from $37,700, 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 391 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 391 of 485 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 $39,820 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $25,700 at the bottom tenth to $52,130 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in New Mexico sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $35,203 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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; New Mexico then takes its own share, leaving $31,818.
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 Mexico is $39,820. 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 ($25,700 to $52,130) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Mexico rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
New Mexico'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 $35,203 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 $31,818 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Mexico 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.