Insurance Underwriters in Alabama
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,492
after federal, FICA and Alabama tax
Tax takes
$12,728
20.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,010
Alabama costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Alabama — 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
$62,220
Kept after tax
$49,492
Worth in national money
$55,010
State rank
48
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Alabama pays insurance underwriters a middle wage of $62,220, 48 of 49 states and about 23.53% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Alabama, this sits in the middle: 167 of 482 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Alabama does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $62,220 you keep $49,492, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $55,010 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $76,480, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Alabama's $62,220 median for insurance underwriters places it 48 of 49 states, about 23.53% 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.
- Insurance underwriters ranks 167 of 482 occupations in Alabama 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.
- After federal, FICA and Alabama income tax, retained pay for insurance underwriters on $62,220 is $49,492. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $55,010 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $76,480 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Insurance Underwriters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,540 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,220 |
| Top tenth earn over | $129,600 |
| This salary | $62,220 |
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 Alabama | $49,492 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,174 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,319 |
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 | $58,883 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,595 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $62,220 as a midpoint for Alabama, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $43,540 and the ninetieth is $129,600 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $49,492 take-home in Alabama comes from $62,220. 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 167 of 482.
- Two cautions on $55,010, the adjusted value of that $62,220 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alabama. 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 167 of 482 locally.
- The Alabama median of $62,220 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $43,540 to $129,600. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $49,492, from $62,220, assumes a single Alabama 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 167 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 48 of 49 for it.
- This $55,010 adjusted figure, worked from $62,220, 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 167 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 167 of 482 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 $76,480 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 $43,540, the highest tenth $129,600, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Alabama is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $55,010 in national terms.
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 Alabama adds its own income tax on top — which is why $49,492 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Alabama is $76,480. 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 ($43,540) and the ninetieth ($129,600) 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?
Alabama'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 $55,010 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 $49,492 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Alabama 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.