Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,192
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$11,198
20.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,768
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$54,390
Kept after tax
$43,192
Worth in national money
$39,768
State rank
28
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Hawaii sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $54,390, ranking 28 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Against other work in Hawaii, this sits in the middle: 285 of 437 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Hawaii is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $54,390 the take-home is $43,192; in national-average money that behaves like $39,768. The average comes to $62,340, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Hawaii occupies the middle band for mental health and substance abuse social workers: a median of $54,390, ranking 28 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Mental health and substance abuse social workers ranks 285 of 437 occupations in Hawaii 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.
- Take-home for mental health and substance abuse social workers in Hawaii, on $54,390, is $43,192; deflated by the state's price level, $39,768. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $62,340 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,790 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $54,390 |
| Top tenth earn over | $90,870 |
| This salary | $54,390 |
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 Hawaii | $43,192 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $45,882 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,448 |
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 | $51,042 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,008 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
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 mental health and substance abuse social workers in Hawaii earn under $54,390 and half over. The published range runs $45,790 at the tenth percentile to $90,870 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Hawaii's $43,192, worked from $54,390. 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 285 of 437.
- Two cautions on $39,768, the adjusted value of that $54,390 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Hawaii. 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 285 of 437 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for mental health and substance abuse social workers in Hawaii, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $45,790 to $90,870; 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.
- The Hawaii take-home of $43,192, on $54,390 for work ranking 285 of 437 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 285 of 437 in the state.
- This $39,768 adjusted figure, worked from $54,390, 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 285 of 437 in the state. The occupation ranks 285 of 437 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $62,340, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $45,790, the highest tenth $90,870, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $39,768 of national purchasing power.
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 Hawaii adds its own income tax on top — which is why $43,192 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 Hawaii is $62,340. 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 ($45,790) and the ninetieth ($90,870) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $39,768 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 $43,192 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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.