Healthcare Social Workers in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$52,430
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$11,600
18.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,857
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$64,030
Kept after tax
$52,430
Worth in national money
$51,857
State rank
30
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Arizona pays healthcare social workers around $64,030 at the midpoint, 30 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 491 occupations Arizona reports figures for, this is number 188.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $64,030, tax leaves $52,430, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $51,857 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $68,330, since top earners drag the number up.
- For healthcare social workers the Arizona median is $64,030, ranking 30 of 51 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.
- In Arizona's occupational distribution, healthcare social workers sits at 188 of 491 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for healthcare social workers — median $64,030 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $52,430 retained, $51,857 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $68,330 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Healthcare Social Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,620 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,030 |
| Top tenth earn over | $96,470 |
| This salary | $64,030 |
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 Arizona | $52,430 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,628 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,330 |
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 | $62,539 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,028 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $64,030 as a midpoint for Arizona, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $44,620 and the ninetieth is $96,470 — 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 Arizona's $52,430, worked from $64,030. 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 188 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Arizona, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $51,857, the adjusted value of that $64,030 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 188 of 491 in the state.
- The Arizona median of $64,030 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $44,620 to $96,470. 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 Arizona take-home of $52,430, on $64,030 for work ranking 188 of 491 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 188 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Arizona, so $51,857 — the adjusted value of that $64,030 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 188 of 491 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 $68,330 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $44,620 at the bottom tenth to $96,470 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Arizona costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $51,857 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Arizona adds its own income tax on top — which is why $52,430 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Arizona is $68,330. 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 ($44,620) and the ninetieth ($96,470) 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?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $51,857 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 $52,430 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.