Library Assistants, Clerical in Alabama
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$23,147
after federal, FICA and Alabama tax
Tax takes
$4,383
15.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$25,727
Alabama costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Alabama — 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
$27,530
Kept after tax
$23,147
Worth in national money
$25,727
State rank
50
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Alabama pays library assistants, clerical a middle wage of $27,530, 50 of 50 states and about 25.41% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Alabama this is lower-paid work. Of 482 occupations the state publishes figures for, library assistants, clerical ranks 465. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $27,530 you keep $23,147 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $25,727 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $29,570, since top earners drag the number up.
- Alabama's $27,530 median for library assistants, clerical places it 50 of 50 states, about 25.41% 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.
- Against every occupation Alabama reports, library assistants, clerical ranks 465 of 482, 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.
- Retained pay in Alabama is $23,147 after the full tax stack, from $27,530. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $25,727 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $29,570 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Library Assistants, Clerical
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $21,700 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $27,530 |
| Top tenth earn over | $38,110 |
| This salary | $27,530 |
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 Alabama | $23,147 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $24,281 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$740 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $26,153 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$873 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Alabama earn less than $27,530. The published range is $21,700 up to $38,110, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $23,147 take-home in Alabama comes from $27,530. 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 465 of 482.
- Two cautions on $25,727, the adjusted value of that $27,530 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alabama. 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 465 of 482 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for library assistants, clerical in Alabama the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $21,700 to $38,110. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $23,147, from $27,530, assumes a single Alabama 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 465 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 50 of 50 for it.
- This $25,727 adjusted figure, worked from $27,530, 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 465 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 465 of 482 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 $29,570 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $21,700 and the top tenth $38,110, so most people doing this work in Alabama sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Alabama sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $25,727 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Alabama adds its own income tax on top — which is why $23,147 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Alabama is $29,570. 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 ($21,700 to $38,110) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alabama rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Alabama'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 $25,727 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 $23,147 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Alabama 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.