Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,700
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$6,890
17.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,454
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$38,590
Kept after tax
$31,700
Worth in national money
$29,454
State rank
8
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks is strong here. New York's middle earner gets $38,590, putting the state 8 of 51 — about 10.04% ahead of the national figure.
- Within New York this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ranks 462. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $38,590 the take-home is $31,700. But New York costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $29,454 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is higher, $45,280, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks, New York sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $38,590, ranking 8 of 51 and running about 10.04% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Against every occupation New York reports, hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ranks 462 of 493, 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.
- Retained pay after federal, FICA and New York income tax is $31,700 for hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks, from $38,590. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $29,454. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $45,280 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,530 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,510 |
| This salary | $38,590 |
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 New York | $31,700 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,187 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,698 |
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 | $36,740 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,682 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in New York earn less than $38,590. The published range is $34,530 up to $62,510, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $31,700 take-home in New York comes from $38,590. 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 462 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of New York, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $29,454, the adjusted value of that $38,590 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 462 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks in New York the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $34,530 to $62,510. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $31,700, from $38,590, assumes a single New York 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 462 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 8 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for New York, so $29,454 — the adjusted value of that $38,590 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 462 of 493 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 $45,280 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $34,530, the highest tenth $62,510, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $29,454 of national purchasing power.
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 New York adds its own income tax on top — which is why $31,700 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 New York is $45,280. 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 ($34,530) and the ninetieth ($62,510) 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?
New York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $29,454 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 $31,700 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.