Personal Care and Service Workers, All Other in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$18,915
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$3,055
13.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$21,669
Mississippi costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Mississippi — 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
$21,970
Kept after tax
$18,915
Worth in national money
$21,669
State rank
46
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Mississippi pays this job a middle wage of $21,970, 46 of 46 states and about 47.19% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Mississippi this is lower-paid work. Of 486 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 484. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $21,970 you keep $18,915 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $21,669 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $24,060, since top earners drag the number up.
- Mississippi's $21,970 median for personal care and service workers, all other places it 46 of 46 states, about 47.19% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Mississippi reports, personal care and service workers, all other ranks 484 of 486, 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 Mississippi is $18,915 after the full tax stack, from $21,970. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $21,669 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $24,060 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Personal Care and Service Workers, All Other
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $18,210 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $21,970 |
| Top tenth earn over | $29,820 |
| This salary | $21,970 |
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 Mississippi | $18,915 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $19,702 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,394 |
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 | $21,015 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,645 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
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 personal care and service workers, all other in Mississippi earn under $21,970 and half over. The published range runs $18,210 at the tenth percentile to $29,820 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $18,915 take-home in Mississippi comes from $21,970. 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 484 of 486.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $21,669 uses one figure for the whole of Mississippi. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 486 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 484.
- Figures are distribution medians for personal care and service workers, all other in Mississippi, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $18,210 to $29,820; 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 $18,915, from $21,970, assumes a single Mississippi 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 484 of 486 locally, and the state ranks 46 of 46 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $21,669, worked from $21,970, 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 Mississippi address, on work sitting at 484 of 486 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 $24,060, 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?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $18,210 and the top tenth $29,820, so most people doing this work in Mississippi sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Mississippi sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $21,669 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Mississippi's own levy, $18,915 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 46 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 Mississippi is $24,060. 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 ($18,210 to $29,820) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Mississippi rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Mississippi'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 $21,669 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 $18,915 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Mississippi 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.