Insurance Underwriters in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$56,244
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$17,016
23.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,786
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$73,260
Kept after tax
$56,244
Worth in national money
$51,786
State rank
41
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Hawaii pays insurance underwriters a middle wage of $73,260, 41 of 49 states and about 9.97% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Insurance underwriters ranks 174 among 437 occupations Hawaii publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $73,260, tax leaves $56,244 — and because Hawaii is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $51,786 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $76,090, since top earners drag the number up.
- Hawaii's $73,260 median for insurance underwriters places it 41 of 49 states, about 9.97% 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.
- Position 174 of 437 in Hawaii places insurance underwriters in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After tax, $56,244 remains from the Hawaii median of $73,260 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $51,786 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $76,090 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Insurance Underwriters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,470 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $73,260 |
| Top tenth earn over | $105,970 |
| This salary | $73,260 |
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 Hawaii | $56,244 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $60,368 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,338 |
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 | $67,397 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,344 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Hawaii earn less than $73,260. The published range is $46,470 up to $105,970, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $56,244 take-home in Hawaii comes from $73,260. 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 174 of 437.
- Two cautions on $51,786, the adjusted value of that $73,260 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Hawaii. 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 174 of 437 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for insurance underwriters in Hawaii the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $46,470 to $105,970. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $56,244, from $73,260, assumes a single Hawaii 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 174 of 437 locally, and the state ranks 41 of 49 for it.
- This $51,786 adjusted figure, worked from $73,260, 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 174 of 437 in the state. The occupation ranks 174 of 437 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 $76,090 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $46,470 at the bottom tenth to $105,970 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Hawaii costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $51,786 rather than its face figure.
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 Hawaii adds its own income tax on top — which is why $56,244 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 Hawaii is $76,090. 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 ($46,470) and the ninetieth ($105,970) 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?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $51,786 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 $56,244 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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.