New Accounts Clerks in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,724
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$9,376
18.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,949
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$52,100
Kept after tax
$42,724
Worth in national money
$37,949
State rank
7
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for new accounts clerks is strong here. California's middle earner gets $52,100, putting the state 7 of 45 — about 9.29% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. New accounts clerks ranks 354 among 492 occupations California publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $52,100, tax leaves $42,724 — and because California is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $37,949 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $55,560, since top earners drag the number up.
- For new accounts clerks, California sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $52,100, ranking 7 of 45 and running about 9.29% 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.
- Position 354 of 492 in California places new accounts clerks 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.
- After tax, $42,724 remains from the California median of $52,100 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $37,949 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $55,560 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: New Accounts Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,680 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $52,100 |
| Top tenth earn over | $72,690 |
| This salary | $52,100 |
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 California | $42,724 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $44,042 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,373 |
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 | $50,459 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,917 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
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 new accounts clerks in California earn under $52,100 and half over. The published range runs $45,680 at the tenth percentile to $72,690 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $42,724 take-home in California comes from $52,100. 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 354 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of California, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $37,949, the adjusted value of that $52,100 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 354 of 492 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for new accounts clerks in California, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $45,680 to $72,690; 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.
- Retained pay of $42,724, from $52,100, assumes a single California 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 354 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 7 of 45 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for California, so $37,949 — the adjusted value of that $52,100 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 354 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $55,560 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $45,680 at the bottom tenth to $72,690 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $37,949 of national purchasing power.
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 California's own levy, $42,724 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 45 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 California is $55,560. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($45,680 to $72,690) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to California rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $37,949 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 $42,724 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.