Interpreters and Translators in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,852
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$11,118
18.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,948
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$58,970
Kept after tax
$47,852
Worth in national money
$43,948
State rank
20
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. New Jersey is 20 of 47 states for interpreters and translators, with a middle wage of $58,970. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Interpreters and translators ranks 299 among 490 occupations New Jersey publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $58,970, tax leaves $47,852 — and because New Jersey is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $43,948 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $80,040, since top earners drag the number up.
- New Jersey ranks 20 of 47 for interpreters and translators at $58,970. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Position 299 of 490 in New Jersey places interpreters and translators 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, $47,852 remains from the New Jersey median of $58,970 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $43,948 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $80,040 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Interpreters and Translators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,170 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,970 |
| Top tenth earn over | $176,910 |
| This salary | $58,970 |
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 New Jersey | $47,852 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,562 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,055 |
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 | $56,841 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,532 |
| 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 New Jersey earn less than $58,970. The published range is $33,170 up to $176,910, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $47,852 take-home in New Jersey comes from $58,970. 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 299 of 490.
- One number stands for prices across all of New Jersey, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $43,948, the adjusted value of that $58,970 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 299 of 490 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for interpreters and translators in New Jersey the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $33,170 to $176,910. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $47,852, from $58,970, assumes a single New Jersey 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 299 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 20 of 47 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for New Jersey, so $43,948 — the adjusted value of that $58,970 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 299 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $80,040, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $33,170 and the top tenth $176,910 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $43,948 of national purchasing power.
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 New Jersey adds its own income tax on top — which is why $47,852 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 47 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 New Jersey is $80,040. 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 ($33,170) and the ninetieth ($176,910) 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?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $43,948 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 $47,852 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.