Office Clerks, General in Minnesota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,879
after federal, FICA and Minnesota tax
Tax takes
$8,961
18.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,504
Minnesota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Minnesota — 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
$47,840
Kept after tax
$38,879
Worth in national money
$39,504
State rank
13
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Minnesota is one of the better-paying states for office clerks, general. The middle earner takes $47,840, which ranks 13 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 6.29% above the national middle.
- Within Minnesota this is lower-paid work. Of 490 occupations the state publishes figures for, office clerks, general ranks 383. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $47,840 the take-home is $38,879, which is worth about $39,504 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $49,410, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Minnesota ranks 13 of 51 states publishing a median for office clerks, general, at $47,840 — about 6.29% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Against every occupation Minnesota reports, office clerks, general ranks 383 of 490, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Minnesota's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for office clerks, general on its $47,840 median: $38,879 retained after tax becomes $39,504 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $49,410 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Office Clerks, General
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,710 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,840 |
| Top tenth earn over | $66,170 |
| This salary | $47,840 |
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 Minnesota | $38,879 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,619 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,296 |
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 | $45,673 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,777 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $47,840 as a midpoint for Minnesota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $33,710 and the ninetieth is $66,170 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $38,879 take-home in Minnesota comes from $47,840. 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 383 of 490.
- Two cautions on $39,504, the adjusted value of that $47,840 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Minnesota. 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 383 of 490 locally.
- The Minnesota median of $47,840 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $33,710 to $66,170. 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 $38,879, from $47,840, assumes a single Minnesota 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 383 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 13 of 51 for it.
- This $39,504 adjusted figure, worked from $47,840, 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 383 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 383 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $49,410, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $33,710 at the tenth percentile, $66,170 at the ninetieth.
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 $39,504.
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 Minnesota adds its own income tax on top — which is why $38,879 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 Minnesota is $49,410. 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 ($33,710 to $66,170) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Minnesota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Minnesota'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 $39,504 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 $38,879 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Minnesota 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.