Medical Records Specialists in Michigan
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,050
after federal, FICA and Michigan tax
Tax takes
$9,070
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,461
Michigan costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Michigan — 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
$48,120
Kept after tax
$39,050
Worth in national money
$41,461
State rank
41
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Michigan is among the lower-paying states for medical records specialists. The middle earner takes $48,120, ranking 41 of 51 states — about 5.91% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Michigan, this sits in the middle: 319 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Michigan is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $48,120 the take-home is $39,050; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $41,461 would nationally. The average comes to $52,650, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Michigan ranks 41 of 51 for medical records specialists, with a median of $48,120 — about 5.91% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Medical records specialists ranks 319 of 493 occupations in Michigan 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 medical records specialists in Michigan, on $48,120, is $39,050 — equivalent to $41,461 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 $52,650 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Medical Records Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,180 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,120 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,080 |
| This salary | $48,120 |
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 Michigan | $39,050 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,844 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$570 |
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 | $45,887 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$690 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $48,120 as a midpoint for Michigan, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,180 and the ninetieth is $77,080 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $39,050 take-home in Michigan comes from $48,120. 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 319 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Michigan, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $41,461, the adjusted value of that $48,120 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 319 of 493 in the state.
- The Michigan median of $48,120 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,180 to $77,080. 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 $39,050, from $48,120, assumes a single Michigan 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 319 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 41 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Michigan, so $41,461 — the adjusted value of that $48,120 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 319 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 $52,650, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $37,180, the highest tenth $77,080, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $41,461.
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 Michigan adds its own income tax on top — which is why $39,050 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 Michigan is $52,650. 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 ($37,180) and the ninetieth ($77,080) 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?
Michigan'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 $41,461 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 $39,050 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Michigan 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.