Packers and Packagers, Hand in Nebraska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,355
after federal, FICA and Nebraska tax
Tax takes
$6,525
16.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,800
Nebraska costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Nebraska — 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
$38,880
Kept after tax
$32,355
Worth in national money
$35,800
State rank
9
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for packers and packagers, hand is strong here. Nebraska's middle earner gets $38,880, putting the state 9 of 51 — about 7.17% ahead of the national figure.
- Within Nebraska this is lower-paid work. Of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, packers and packagers, hand ranks 416. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $38,880 you keep $32,355 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $35,800 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $40,350, since top earners drag the number up.
- For packers and packagers, hand, Nebraska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $38,880, ranking 9 of 51 and running about 7.17% 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.
- Against every occupation Nebraska reports, packers and packagers, hand ranks 416 of 488, 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.
- Retained pay in Nebraska is $32,355 after the full tax stack, from $38,880. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $35,800 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $40,350 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Packers and Packagers, Hand
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,870 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,500 |
| This salary | $38,880 |
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 Nebraska | $32,355 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,420 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,408 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $37,554 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,703 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $38,880 as a midpoint for Nebraska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $28,870 and the ninetieth is $49,500 — 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 Nebraska's $32,355, worked from $38,880. 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 416 of 488.
- Two cautions on $35,800, the adjusted value of that $38,880 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Nebraska. 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 416 of 488 locally.
- The Nebraska median of $38,880 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $28,870 to $49,500. 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 Nebraska take-home of $32,355, on $38,880 for work ranking 416 of 488 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 416 of 488 in the state.
- This $35,800 adjusted figure, worked from $38,880, 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 416 of 488 in the state. The occupation ranks 416 of 488 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 $40,350, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $28,870 at the bottom tenth to $49,500 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $35,800.
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 Nebraska's own levy, $32,355 remains.
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 Nebraska is $40,350. 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 ($28,870 to $49,500) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Nebraska rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Nebraska'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 $35,800 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 $32,355 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Nebraska 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.