Funeral Attendants in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,592
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$6,108
15.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,950
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$38,700
Kept after tax
$32,592
Worth in national money
$28,950
State rank
18
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. California pays funeral attendants around $38,700 at the midpoint, 18 of 48 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 492 occupations California publishes, funeral attendants lands at 469. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- California is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $38,700 the take-home is $32,592; in national-average money that behaves like $28,950. The average comes to $42,470, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For funeral attendants the California median is $38,700, ranking 18 of 48 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within California, this work ranks 469 of 492 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.
- Take-home for funeral attendants in California, on $38,700, is $32,592; deflated by the state's price level, $28,950. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $42,470 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Funeral Attendants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,950 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $53,750 |
| This salary | $38,700 |
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 California | $32,592 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,275 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,293 |
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 | $37,849 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,402 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
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 funeral attendants in California earn under $38,700 and half over. The published range runs $35,950 at the tenth percentile to $53,750 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In California the take-home figure of $32,592, from $38,700, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 469 of 492 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $28,950 uses one figure for the whole of California. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 492 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 469.
- Figures are distribution medians for funeral attendants in California, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,950 to $53,750; 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.
- Take-home for California is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $32,592 from $38,700. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 469 of 492 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $28,950, worked from $38,700, 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 California address, on work sitting at 469 of 492 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 $42,470 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $35,950 and the top tenth $53,750, so most people doing this work in California sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. California costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $28,950 rather than its face figure.
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 California's own levy, $32,592 remains.
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 48 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 California is $42,470. 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 ($35,950 to $53,750) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to California rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $28,950 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 $32,592 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.