Medical Records Specialists in Alabama
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,510
after federal, FICA and Alabama tax
Tax takes
$8,300
18.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,468
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
$43,810
Kept after tax
$35,510
Worth in national money
$39,468
State rank
49
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for medical records specialists is on the low side in Alabama. The middle earner gets $43,810. That is 49 of 51 states, and about 14.33% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Medical records specialists ranks 320 among 482 occupations Alabama publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $43,810 you keep $35,510 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $39,468 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $45,710, since top earners drag the number up.
- For medical records specialists, Alabama sits in the lower band at $43,810, ranking 49 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 14.33%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 320 of 482 in Alabama places medical records specialists in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Retained pay in Alabama is $35,510 after the full tax stack, from $43,810. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $39,468 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $45,710 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Medical Records Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,250 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,810 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,730 |
| This salary | $43,810 |
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 | $35,510 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,381 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,000 |
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 | $41,481 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,210 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $43,810 as a midpoint for Alabama, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $30,250 and the ninetieth is $64,730 — 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 Alabama's $35,510, worked from $43,810. 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 320 of 482.
- Two cautions on $39,468, the adjusted value of that $43,810 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 320 of 482 locally.
- The Alabama median of $43,810 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $30,250 to $64,730. 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 Alabama take-home of $35,510, on $43,810 for work ranking 320 of 482 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 320 of 482 in the state.
- This $39,468 adjusted figure, worked from $43,810, 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 320 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 320 of 482 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $45,710, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $30,250 and the top tenth $64,730 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Alabama is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $39,468 in national terms.
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 $35,510 of this wage survives to your account.
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 Alabama is $45,710. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($30,250) and the ninetieth ($64,730) 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?
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 $39,468 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 $35,510 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.
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.