Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks in Michigan
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$45,169
after federal, FICA and Michigan tax
Tax takes
$10,991
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,958
Michigan costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Michigan — 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
$56,160
Kept after tax
$45,169
Worth in national money
$47,958
State rank
27
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Michigan is 27 of 51 states for payroll and timekeeping clerks, with a middle wage of $56,160. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Michigan, this sits in the middle: 268 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $56,160 you keep $45,169 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $47,958 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $58,450, since top earners drag the number up.
- Michigan ranks 27 of 51 for payroll and timekeeping clerks at $56,160. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Payroll and timekeeping clerks ranks 268 of 493 occupations in Michigan 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.
- Retained pay in Michigan is $45,169 after the full tax stack, from $56,160. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $47,958 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $58,450 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,560 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $56,160 |
| Top tenth earn over | $78,200 |
| This salary | $56,160 |
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 Michigan | $45,169 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $47,305 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$722 |
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 | $53,502 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$873 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
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 payroll and timekeeping clerks in Michigan earn under $56,160 and half over. The published range runs $38,560 at the tenth percentile to $78,200 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 Michigan's $45,169, worked from $56,160. 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 268 of 493.
- Two cautions on $47,958, the adjusted value of that $56,160 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Michigan. 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 268 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for payroll and timekeeping clerks in Michigan, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $38,560 to $78,200; 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 Michigan take-home of $45,169, on $56,160 for work ranking 268 of 493 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 268 of 493 in the state.
- This $47,958 adjusted figure, worked from $56,160, 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 268 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 268 of 493 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 $58,450, 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 $38,560 at the bottom tenth to $78,200 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Michigan sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $47,958 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Michigan adds its own income tax on top — which is why $45,169 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 Michigan is $58,450. 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 ($38,560 to $78,200) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Michigan rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Michigan'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 $47,958 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 $45,169 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Michigan 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.