Healthcare Social Workers in Rhode Island

Two armchairs facing each other in a welcoming counseling room.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$59,460

after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax

Tax takes

$15,930

21.1% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$58,632

Rhode Island costs more than average

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

$75,390

Kept after tax

$59,460

Worth in national money

$58,632

State rank

14

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • This is a good state for the work. Rhode Island pays healthcare social workers a middle wage of $75,390, ranking 14 of 51 states and sitting about 11.06% above the national middle.
  • Middle of the local pack. Of 452 occupations Rhode Island reports figures for, this is number 182.
  • Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $75,390, tax leaves $59,460, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $58,632 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $73,020.
  • Rhode Island's median for healthcare social workers is $75,390, about 11.06% above the national figure and 14 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
  • In Rhode Island's occupational distribution, healthcare social workers sits at 182 of 452 — 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 Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for healthcare social workers — median $75,390 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $59,460 retained, $58,632 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $73,020 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Healthcare Social Workers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$48,070
Half earn under$75,390
Top tenth earn over$96,840
This salary$75,390

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

Compare with
+$2,407take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Rhode Island$59,460
Take-home in Texas$61,867
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$5,034

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

Moving to
$0now · $75,390$68,437
$68,437in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$71,968
You could take a cut of−$6,953
Prices in Texas97 vs 101

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 healthcare social workers in Rhode Island earn under $75,390 and half over. The published range runs $48,070 at the tenth percentile to $96,840 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • That $59,460 take-home in Rhode Island comes from $75,390. 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 182 of 452.
  • Two cautions on $58,632, the adjusted value of that $75,390 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Rhode Island. 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 182 of 452 locally.
  • Figures are distribution medians for healthcare social workers in Rhode Island, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $48,070 to $96,840; 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.
  • Retained pay of $59,460, from $75,390, assumes a single Rhode Island 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 182 of 452 locally, and the state ranks 14 of 51 for it.
  • This $58,632 adjusted figure, worked from $75,390, 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 182 of 452 in the state. The occupation ranks 182 of 452 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 $73,020 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $48,070 at the tenth percentile, $96,840 at the ninetieth.

Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?

Not on its own. Prices in Rhode Island run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $58,632 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.

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 Rhode Island's own levy, $59,460 remains.

Can I compare this job across every state?

Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.

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 Rhode Island is $73,020. 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 ($48,070 to $96,840) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.

How does the state price level affect real compensation?

Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $58,632 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 $59,460 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.