Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,271
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$7,749
18.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,843
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$42,020
Kept after tax
$34,271
Worth in national money
$31,843
State rank
13
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. New York pays this job a middle wage of $42,020, ranking 13 of 50 states and sitting about 6.98% above the national middle.
- Against 493 occupations New York publishes, this job lands at 449. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $42,020, tax leaves $34,271 — and because New York is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $31,843 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $44,030, since top earners drag the number up.
- New York's median for mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service is $42,020, about 6.98% above the national figure and 13 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within New York, this work ranks 449 of 493 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 tax, $34,271 remains from the New York median of $42,020 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $31,843 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $44,030 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,700 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $42,020 |
| Top tenth earn over | $57,480 |
| This salary | $42,020 |
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 New York | $34,271 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $35,943 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,145 |
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 | $39,939 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,223 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
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 mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service in New York earn under $42,020 and half over. The published range runs $34,700 at the tenth percentile to $57,480 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $34,271 take-home in New York comes from $42,020. 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 449 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of New York, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $31,843, the adjusted value of that $42,020 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 449 of 493 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service in New York, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $34,700 to $57,480; 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.
- Retained pay of $34,271, from $42,020, assumes a single New York 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 449 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 13 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for New York, so $31,843 — the adjusted value of that $42,020 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 449 of 493 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 $44,030, 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 $34,700 at the bottom tenth to $57,480 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 $31,843 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 New York's own levy, $34,271 remains.
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 New York is $44,030. 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 ($34,700 to $57,480) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New York rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $31,843 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 $34,271 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.