Massage Therapists in South Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,253
after federal, FICA and South Carolina tax
Tax takes
$10,747
18.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,714
South Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Carolina — 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
$58,000
Kept after tax
$47,253
Worth in national money
$50,714
State rank
30
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- South Carolina sits in the middle of the pack for massage therapists. The median is $58,000, ranking 30 of 50 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Against other work in South Carolina, this sits in the middle: 224 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- South Carolina is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $58,000 the take-home is $47,253; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $50,714 would nationally. The average lands at $56,750, below the middle of the range.
- South Carolina occupies the middle band for massage therapists: a median of $58,000, ranking 30 of 50. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Massage therapists ranks 224 of 492 occupations in South Carolina by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Post-tax income for massage therapists in South Carolina, on $58,000, is $47,253 — equivalent to $50,714 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 $56,750 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Massage Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $17,340 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $95,540 |
| This salary | $58,000 |
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 South Carolina | $47,253 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,783 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$512 |
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 | $56,096 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$620 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $58,000 as a midpoint for South Carolina, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $17,340 and the ninetieth is $95,540 — 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 South Carolina's $47,253, worked from $58,000. 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 224 of 492.
- Two cautions on $50,714, the adjusted value of that $58,000 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Carolina. 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 224 of 492 locally.
- The South Carolina median of $58,000 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $17,340 to $95,540. 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 South Carolina take-home of $47,253, on $58,000 for work ranking 224 of 492 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 224 of 492 in the state.
- This $50,714 adjusted figure, worked from $58,000, 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 224 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 224 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $17,340 and the top tenth $95,540 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in South Carolina sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $50,714 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 South Carolina's own levy, $47,253 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.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($17,340) and the ninetieth ($95,540) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Carolina'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 $50,714 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 $47,253 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and South Carolina 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.