Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$37,180
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$7,530
16.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,025
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$44,710
Kept after tax
$37,180
Worth in national money
$33,025
State rank
8
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. California's middle earner gets $44,710, putting the state 8 of 51 — about 11.11% ahead of the national figure.
- Within California this is lower-paid work. Of 492 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 434. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $44,710, tax leaves $37,180 — and because California is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $33,025 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $45,590, since top earners drag the number up.
- For laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand, California sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $44,710, ranking 8 of 51 and running about 11.11% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Against every occupation California reports, laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand ranks 434 of 492, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- After tax, $37,180 remains from the California median of $44,710 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $33,025 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $45,590 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: Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,060 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $57,700 |
| This salary | $44,710 |
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 California | $37,180 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,104 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,187 |
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 | $43,560 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,482 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand in California earn under $44,710 and half over. The published range runs $36,060 at the tenth percentile to $57,700 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In California the take-home figure of $37,180, from $44,710, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 434 of 492 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $33,025, the adjusted value of that $44,710 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of California. 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 434 of 492 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand in California, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,060 to $57,700; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for California is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $37,180 from $44,710. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 434 of 492 locally.
- This $33,025 adjusted figure, worked from $44,710, 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 434 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 434 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $36,060 at the bottom tenth to $57,700 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. California costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $33,025 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 California adds its own income tax on top — which is why $37,180 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($36,060 to $57,700) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to California rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $33,025 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 $37,180 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.