Interior Designers in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,403
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$11,997
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,695
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$62,400
Kept after tax
$50,403
Worth in national money
$51,695
State rank
30
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pennsylvania sits in the middle of the pack for interior designers. The median is $62,400, ranking 30 of 49 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Interior designers ranks 214 among 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes pay for.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $62,400 the take-home is $50,403, which is worth about $51,695 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $67,890, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Pennsylvania occupies the middle band for interior designers: a median of $62,400, ranking 30 of 49. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Position 214 of 492 in Pennsylvania places interior designers 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.
- Pennsylvania's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for interior designers on its $62,400 median: $50,403 retained after tax becomes $51,695 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $67,890 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Interior Designers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,470 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,400 |
| Top tenth earn over | $97,820 |
| This salary | $62,400 |
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 Pennsylvania | $50,403 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,318 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,144 |
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 | $60,016 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,593 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $62,400 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $44,470 and the ninetieth is $97,820 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $50,403 take-home in Pennsylvania comes from $62,400. 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 214 of 492.
- Two cautions on $51,695, the adjusted value of that $62,400 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Pennsylvania. 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 214 of 492 locally.
- The Pennsylvania median of $62,400 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $44,470 to $97,820. 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 $50,403, from $62,400, assumes a single Pennsylvania 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 214 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 30 of 49 for it.
- This $51,695 adjusted figure, worked from $62,400, 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 214 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 214 of 492 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 $67,890 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $44,470 and the top tenth $97,820 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $51,695.
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 Pennsylvania's own levy, $50,403 remains.
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 Pennsylvania is $67,890. 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 ($44,470) and the ninetieth ($97,820) 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?
Pennsylvania'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 $51,695 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 $50,403 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.