Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$28,498
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$5,852
17.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,647
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
$34,350
Kept after tax
$28,498
Worth in national money
$32,647
State rank
49
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Mississippi pays this job a middle wage of $34,350, 49 of 50 states and about 12.55% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Mississippi this is lower-paid work. Of 486 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 417. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Mississippi is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $34,350 the take-home is $28,498; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $32,647 would nationally. The average comes to $34,530, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Mississippi's $34,350 median for mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service places it 49 of 50 states, about 12.55% 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 Mississippi reports, mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service ranks 417 of 486, 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.
- Post-tax income for mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service in Mississippi, on $34,350, is $28,498 — equivalent to $32,647 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $34,530 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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: Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $21,690 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $34,350 |
| Top tenth earn over | $45,660 |
| This salary | $34,350 |
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 | $28,498 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $29,780 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,001 |
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 | $32,754 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,420 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $34,350 as a midpoint for Mississippi, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $21,690 and the ninetieth is $45,660 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Mississippi's $28,498, worked from $34,350. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 417 of 486.
- One number stands for prices across all of Mississippi, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $32,647, the adjusted value of that $34,350 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 417 of 486 in the state.
- The Mississippi median of $34,350 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $21,690 to $45,660. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Mississippi take-home of $28,498, on $34,350 for work ranking 417 of 486 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 417 of 486 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Mississippi, so $32,647 — the adjusted value of that $34,350 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 417 of 486 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $21,690 at the tenth percentile, $45,660 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $32,647.
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, $28,498 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($21,690 to $45,660) 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 $32,647 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 $28,498 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.
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.