Helpers--Production Workers
What the pay figures show
- North Dakota pays helpers--production workers the most, at $46,170. Unusually, it stays on top. Tax does not overturn it. Nor do local prices — it is still first at $44,345 once levelled out. That is rarer than it sounds. For most jobs the leader changes.
- North Dakota leads for helpers--production workers at $46,170 and retains the position through both adjustments, finishing first at $44,345 in price-deflated terms. That robustness is the minority case: across the largest occupations, state income tax reorders the leader roughly a third of the time and price level does so more often still. Where the nominal leader survives both, the wage premium is large enough to absorb the state's own tax and price levels.
Compare this career across states
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Pay by state · May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
National median
$39,070
People doing it
165,700
Highest paid
$46,170
ND
Best off, really
$44,345
ND, after tax and prices
Lowest tenth
$31,140
Highest tenth
$53,410
Lowest, really
$30,392
NJ
States with data
49
National average
$41,120
mean, not median
Prices where it goes furthest
88.57%
ND, against a national 100
Where this job actually pays best
- Pay for this job is fairly steady around the country. Count tax and local prices and the states bunch closer still, from $30,392 to $44,345. For work like this, where you live changes your life more than it changes your pay.
- About 165,700 Americans work in this job, on a middle wage of $39,070. Big enough that where you live changes the arithmetic.
- Some states are missing here. There are figures for 49 jurisdictions, averaging $39,070 in the middle. A blank means nobody published a number, not that the job pays nothing there. North Dakota leads the published set.
- Geographic dispersion in helpers--production workers is moderate by national standards. Tax and price adjustment compress the distribution further, to a real range of $30,392 through $44,345. Where nominal spread is this contained, relocation decisions in the occupation turn on non-wage factors, because the wage differential does not survive the adjustments in a form large enough to drive them.
- With 165,700 workers, helpers--production workers sits in the middle of the BLS headcount distribution. The state-level spread described above therefore applies to a meaningful population rather than a niche one.
- Coverage for helpers--production workers runs to 49 jurisdictions, short of the full set. The omitted states are suppressed at source; treat the spread above as the range across reported states rather than across the country.
Pay band: Helpers--Production Workers
The national median for this job
50thpercentile, roughly
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,140 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,070 |
| Top tenth earn over | $53,410 |
| This salary | $39,070 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
Where these numbers come from
| BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates, time-series bulk download (oe.data.0.Current) | as of 2025-05-01 |
|---|
Steps in Helpers--Production Workers
The national median for this job
$39,070around the 50th percentile
| Lowest tenth | $31,140 |
|---|---|
| Middle | $39,070 |
| Top tenth | $53,410 |
The five points BLS publishes. Nothing between them is invented.
Helpers--Production Workers, state by state
The national median for this job
49states publish pay for this job
| Lowest | Mississippi · $33,880 |
|---|---|
| Highest | North Dakota · $46,170 |
| Spread | $12,290 |
One dot per state that publishes this job. A missing state means suppressed data, not zero pay.
Best paid, and best off
The national median for this job
| Texas pays | $36,610 |
|---|---|
| Worth, after local prices | $37,674 |
Median pay against the same pay once BEA price parities are applied.
Every state, three ways
Sorted by what the money is actually worth. "Kept" is take-home for a single filer after federal, FICA and state income tax. "Really worth" divides that by the state's own price level, so a dollar in each row buys the same thing. Tap a state to put your own salary into it. States BLS does not publish for this job are absent — that means no published figure, not no work.
| State | Median pay | Kept after tax | Really worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| ND | $46,170 | $39,278 | $44,345 |
| IA | $45,560 | $37,668 | $42,435 |
| MT | $46,110 | $37,819 | $41,907 |
| NE | $45,020 | $37,009 | $40,950 |
| WI | $45,100 | $37,048 | $39,795 |
| KY | $42,130 | $34,675 | $38,328 |
| WY | $40,200 | $34,481 | $37,954 |
| IN | $42,210 | $34,880 | $37,837 |
| MN | $44,720 | $36,539 | $37,126 |
| ME | $44,120 | $35,972 | $37,048 |
| CO | $45,550 | $37,484 | $36,973 |
| MO | $40,580 | $33,816 | $36,852 |
| OH | $39,600 | $33,626 | $36,625 |
| WV | $39,190 | $32,651 | $36,372 |
| RI | $44,720 | $36,856 | $36,342 |
| MI | $41,660 | $34,134 | $36,242 |
| AK | $42,530 | $36,353 | $35,740 |
| WA | $45,450 | $38,699 | $35,647 |
| TN | $38,330 | $32,978 | $35,646 |
| CT | $45,260 | $36,760 | $35,452 |
| NV | $39,730 | $34,103 | $35,165 |
| MD | $44,680 | $36,322 | $34,936 |
| NC | $39,410 | $32,782 | $34,823 |
| PA | $41,060 | $33,911 | $34,781 |
| LA | $36,400 | $30,722 | $34,775 |
| ID | $38,240 | $31,732 | $34,709 |
| NH | $42,740 | $36,522 | $34,669 |
| AR | $35,540 | $29,880 | $34,540 |
| OK | $36,240 | $30,169 | $34,171 |
| VT | $39,540 | $32,882 | $34,027 |
| IL | $41,480 | $33,601 | $33,990 |
| KS | $37,320 | $30,373 | $33,761 |
| OR | $45,390 | $35,229 | $33,641 |
| NM | $35,650 | $30,259 | $33,478 |
| SC | $36,610 | $31,166 | $33,448 |
| AZ | $39,680 | $33,473 | $33,108 |
| HI | $44,380 | $35,878 | $33,034 |
| NY | $43,540 | $35,410 | $32,901 |
| AL | $35,910 | $29,510 | $32,799 |
| CA | $43,970 | $36,615 | $32,524 |
| TX | $36,610 | $31,596 | $32,515 |
| MS | $33,880 | $28,139 | $32,236 |
| UT | $37,110 | $30,346 | $31,943 |
| MA | $42,280 | $34,358 | $31,743 |
| DE | $38,380 | $31,455 | $31,692 |
| FL | $37,950 | $32,673 | $31,583 |
| GA | $36,280 | $30,119 | $31,148 |
| VA | $37,740 | $31,095 | $30,863 |
| NJ | $39,290 | $33,092 | $30,392 |
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle of the range, not a starting salary and not an offer. Half of helpers--production workers earn less than the figures here and half earn more, and experience, employer and city move an individual a long way from the middle. Nationally the middle earns $39,070.
- One filer, no dependants, nothing paid into a pension before tax — that is the household behind every take-home figure for helpers--production workers. It is the simplest case on purpose, so the states can be compared against each other rather than against each other's family circumstances. City income taxes are not counted. On that household, North Dakota keeps the most at $39,278.
- One price figure per state stands behind the real-terms numbers for helpers--production workers. Inside any state, a big city costs far more than a small town, so this is a fair way to compare states with each other and a poor way to price a specific move. The wage figures and the price figures are also from different years. At the bottom of the range sits New Jersey, on $30,392.
- Figures are medians of the published wage distribution for helpers--production workers, not entry-level or offer wages. The national median is $39,070, with half of workers below it; dispersion within a state routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, driven by tenure, employer size, sector and metropolitan area. An individual's position in the distribution is not predictable from geography alone.
- The household modeled for helpers--production workers is a single filer, standard deduction, no dependants, no pre-tax contributions. Holding the household constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful; it also means the absolute figures overstate liability for most real filers. On that basis North Dakota retains the most, $39,278. Municipal and school-district income taxes are not included in any state.
- Real-terms results for helpers--production workers rest on statewide regional price parities, which average over intra-state variation that is itself larger than much of the interstate variation. They support comparison between states and not the pricing of an individual relocation; New Jersey anchors the distribution at $30,392. Wage and price series are published on separate cycles and therefore carry different reference periods.