Librarians and Media Collections Specialists in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$53,113
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$15,157
22.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,903
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
$68,270
Kept after tax
$53,113
Worth in national money
$48,903
State rank
19
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Hawaii pays this job around $68,270 at the midpoint, 19 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 188 among 437 occupations Hawaii publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $68,270, tax leaves $53,113 — and because Hawaii is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $48,903 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $72,460, since top earners drag the number up.
- For librarians and media collections specialists the Hawaii median is $68,270, ranking 19 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 188 of 437 in Hawaii places librarians and media collections specialists 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, $53,113 remains from the Hawaii median of $68,270 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $48,903 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $72,460 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Librarians and Media Collections Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $51,280 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $68,270 |
| Top tenth earn over | $97,760 |
| This salary | $68,270 |
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 | $53,113 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $56,858 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,608 |
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 | $63,388 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,841 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $68,270 as a midpoint for Hawaii, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $51,280 and the ninetieth is $97,760 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $53,113 take-home in Hawaii comes from $68,270. 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 188 of 437.
- One number stands for prices across all of Hawaii, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $48,903, the adjusted value of that $68,270 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 188 of 437 in the state.
- The Hawaii median of $68,270 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $51,280 to $97,760. 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 $53,113, from $68,270, 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 188 of 437 locally, and the state ranks 19 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Hawaii, so $48,903 — the adjusted value of that $68,270 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 188 of 437 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 $72,460, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $51,280 at the bottom tenth to $97,760 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $48,903 of national purchasing power.
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 Hawaii's own levy, $53,113 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $72,460. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($51,280 to $97,760) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Hawaii rather than a national figure.
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 $48,903 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 $53,113 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.
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.