Merchandise Displayers and Window Trimmers in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,119
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$8,171
18.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,446
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$43,290
Kept after tax
$35,119
Worth in national money
$32,446
State rank
11
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Massachusetts's middle earner gets $43,290, putting the state 11 of 51 — about 9.9% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 485 occupations Massachusetts publishes, this job lands at 429. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $43,290, tax leaves $35,119 — and because Massachusetts is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $32,446 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $47,200, since top earners drag the number up.
- For merchandise displayers and window trimmers, Massachusetts sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $43,290, ranking 11 of 51 and running about 9.9% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Within Massachusetts, this work ranks 429 of 485 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, $35,119 remains from the Massachusetts median of $43,290 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $32,446 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $47,200 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Merchandise Displayers and Window Trimmers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,390 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,290 |
| Top tenth earn over | $69,250 |
| This salary | $43,290 |
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 Massachusetts | $35,119 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,964 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,592 |
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 | $40,994 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,763 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $43,290 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,390 and the ninetieth is $69,250 — 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 Massachusetts's $35,119, worked from $43,290. 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 429 of 485.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $32,446 uses one figure for the whole of Massachusetts. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 485 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 429.
- The Massachusetts median of $43,290 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,390 to $69,250. 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 Massachusetts take-home of $35,119, on $43,290 for work ranking 429 of 485 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 429 of 485 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $32,446, worked from $43,290, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Massachusetts address, on work sitting at 429 of 485 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 $47,200, 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 $34,390, the highest tenth $69,250, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Massachusetts costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $32,446 rather than its face figure.
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 Massachusetts's own levy, $35,119 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Massachusetts is $47,200. 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 ($34,390) and the ninetieth ($69,250) 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?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $32,446 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 $35,119 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.