Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,380
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$4,370
14.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,748
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — 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
$30,750
Kept after tax
$26,380
Worth in national money
$28,748
State rank
40
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Missouri pays this job a middle wage of $30,750, 40 of 50 states and about 14.08% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Missouri this is lower-paid work. Of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 477. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where Missouri does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $30,750 you keep $26,380, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $28,748 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $40,240, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Missouri's $30,750 median for hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists places it 40 of 50 states, about 14.08% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Missouri reports, hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists ranks 477 of 488, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- After federal, FICA and Missouri income tax, retained pay for hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists on $30,750 is $26,380. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $28,748 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $40,240 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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: Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $30,750 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,530 |
| This salary | $30,750 |
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 Missouri | $26,380 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $26,888 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,079 |
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 | $30,118 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,305 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $30,750 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $28,600 and the ninetieth is $58,530 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $26,380 take-home in Missouri comes from $30,750. 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 477 of 488.
- One number stands for prices across all of Missouri, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $28,748, the adjusted value of that $30,750 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 477 of 488 in the state.
- The Missouri median of $30,750 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $28,600 to $58,530. 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 $26,380, from $30,750, assumes a single Missouri 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 477 of 488 locally, and the state ranks 40 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Missouri, so $28,748 — the adjusted value of that $30,750 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 477 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $40,240, 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 $28,600 and the top tenth $58,530 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $28,748.
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 Missouri's own levy, $26,380 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 50 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 Missouri is $40,240. 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 ($28,600) and the ninetieth ($58,530) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri'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 $28,748 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 $26,380 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.