Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers in South Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,189
after federal, FICA and South Carolina tax
Tax takes
$8,941
17.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,278
South Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Carolina — 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
$51,130
Kept after tax
$42,189
Worth in national money
$45,278
State rank
47
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. South Carolina pays this job a middle wage of $51,130, 47 of 51 states and about 12.81% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in South Carolina, this sits in the middle: 267 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $51,130 you keep $42,189 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $45,278 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $55,680, since top earners drag the number up.
- South Carolina's $51,130 median for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers places it 47 of 51 states, about 12.81% 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.
- Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers ranks 267 of 492 occupations in South Carolina by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Retained pay in South Carolina is $42,189 after the full tax stack, from $51,130. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $45,278 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $55,680 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,330 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,130 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,070 |
| This salary | $51,130 |
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 South Carolina | $42,189 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,263 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$757 |
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 | $49,793 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$916 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
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 heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in South Carolina earn under $51,130 and half over. The published range runs $39,330 at the tenth percentile to $77,070 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind South Carolina's $42,189, worked from $51,130. 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 267 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of South Carolina, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $45,278, the adjusted value of that $51,130 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 267 of 492 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in South Carolina, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,330 to $77,070; 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.
- The South Carolina take-home of $42,189, on $51,130 for work ranking 267 of 492 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 267 of 492 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for South Carolina, so $45,278 — the adjusted value of that $51,130 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 267 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $55,680, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $39,330, the highest tenth $77,070, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $45,278.
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 South Carolina adds its own income tax on top — which is why $42,189 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 South Carolina is $55,680. 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 ($39,330) and the ninetieth ($77,070) 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?
South Carolina'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 $45,278 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 $42,189 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and South Carolina 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.