Interior Designers in North Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,574
after federal, FICA and North Carolina tax
Tax takes
$11,826
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,660
North Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Carolina — 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
$61,400
Kept after tax
$49,574
Worth in national money
$52,660
State rank
35
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. North Carolina pays interior designers a middle wage of $61,400, 35 of 49 states and about 8.62% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 489 occupations North Carolina reports figures for, this is number 195.
- Here is where North Carolina does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $61,400 you keep $49,574, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $52,660 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $66,260, because the best-paid pull it up.
- North Carolina's $61,400 median for interior designers places it 35 of 49 states, about 8.62% 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.
- In North Carolina's occupational distribution, interior designers sits at 195 of 489 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- After federal, FICA and North Carolina income tax, retained pay for interior designers on $61,400 is $49,574. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $52,660 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 $66,260 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Interior Designers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,870 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,400 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,450 |
| This salary | $61,400 |
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 North Carolina | $49,574 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,515 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$352 |
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 | $58,984 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$426 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,400 as a midpoint for North Carolina, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $39,870 and the ninetieth is $100,450 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $49,574 take-home in North Carolina comes from $61,400. 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 195 of 489.
- Two cautions on $52,660, the adjusted value of that $61,400 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of North Carolina. 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 195 of 489 locally.
- The North Carolina median of $61,400 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $39,870 to $100,450. 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 $49,574, from $61,400, assumes a single North Carolina 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 195 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 35 of 49 for it.
- This $52,660 adjusted figure, worked from $61,400, 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 195 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 195 of 489 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 $66,260 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 $39,870, the highest tenth $100,450, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in North Carolina sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $52,660 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and North Carolina's own levy, $49,574 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 North Carolina is $66,260. 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 ($39,870) and the ninetieth ($100,450) 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?
North Carolina'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 $52,660 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 $49,574 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Carolina 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.