Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,727
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$3,823
12.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,339
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$30,550
Kept after tax
$26,727
Worth in national money
$30,339
State rank
37
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. South Dakota pays hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks a middle wage of $30,550, 37 of 51 states and about 12.89% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within South Dakota this is lower-paid work. Of 457 occupations the state publishes figures for, hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ranks 438. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- South Dakota is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $30,550 the take-home is $26,727; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $30,339 would nationally. The average comes to $31,830, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- South Dakota's $30,550 median for hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks places it 37 of 51 states, about 12.89% 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.
- Against every occupation South Dakota reports, hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ranks 438 of 457, 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.
- Post-tax income for hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks in South Dakota, on $30,550, is $26,727 — equivalent to $30,339 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $31,830 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 | $28,440 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $30,550 |
| Top tenth earn over | $36,010 |
| This salary | $30,550 |
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 Dakota | $26,727 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $26,727 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,835 |
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 | $30,550 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,428 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in South Dakota earn less than $30,550. The published range is $28,440 up to $36,010, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $26,727 take-home in South Dakota comes from $30,550. 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 438 of 457.
- Two cautions on $30,339, the adjusted value of that $30,550 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Dakota. 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 438 of 457 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks in South Dakota the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $28,440 to $36,010. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $26,727, from $30,550, assumes a single South Dakota 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 438 of 457 locally, and the state ranks 37 of 51 for it.
- This $30,339 adjusted figure, worked from $30,550, 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 438 of 457 in the state. The occupation ranks 438 of 457 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 $31,830 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $28,440 at the bottom tenth to $36,010 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $30,339.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $26,727 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 South Dakota is $31,830. 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 ($28,440 to $36,010) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Dakota'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 $30,339 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $26,727 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.