Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$20,851
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$3,589
14.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$23,886
Mississippi costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Mississippi — 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
$24,440
Kept after tax
$20,851
Worth in national money
$23,886
State rank
50
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Mississippi. The middle earner gets $24,440. That is 50 of 51 states, and about 27.22% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 486 occupations Mississippi publishes, this job lands at 473. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Here is where Mississippi does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $24,440 you keep $20,851, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $23,886 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $25,220, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers, Mississippi sits in the lower band at $24,440, ranking 50 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 27.22%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Mississippi, this work ranks 473 of 486 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After federal, FICA and Mississippi income tax, retained pay for lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers on $24,440 is $20,851. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $23,886 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $25,220 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $21,110 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $24,440 |
| Top tenth earn over | $31,200 |
| This salary | $24,440 |
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 Mississippi | $20,851 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $21,736 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,518 |
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 | $23,365 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,791 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $24,440 as a midpoint for Mississippi, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $21,110 and the ninetieth is $31,200 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $20,851 take-home in Mississippi comes from $24,440. 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 473 of 486.
- Two cautions on $23,886, the adjusted value of that $24,440 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Mississippi. 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 473 of 486 locally.
- The Mississippi median of $24,440 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $21,110 to $31,200. 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 $20,851, from $24,440, assumes a single Mississippi 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 473 of 486 locally, and the state ranks 50 of 51 for it.
- This $23,886 adjusted figure, worked from $24,440, 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 473 of 486 in the state. The occupation ranks 473 of 486 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $25,220, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $21,110 at the bottom tenth to $31,200 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Mississippi is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $23,886 in national terms.
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 Mississippi's own levy, $20,851 remains.
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.
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 Mississippi is $25,220. 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 ($21,110 to $31,200) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Mississippi rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Mississippi'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 $23,886 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 $20,851 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Mississippi 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.