Pharmacy Aides in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,682
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$6,788
17.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,520
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$39,470
Kept after tax
$32,682
Worth in national money
$33,520
State rank
8
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for pharmacy aides is strong here. Pennsylvania's middle earner gets $39,470, putting the state 8 of 48 — about 4.75% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes, pharmacy aides lands at 420. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $39,470, tax leaves $32,682, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $33,520 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $38,310.
- For pharmacy aides, Pennsylvania sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $39,470, ranking 8 of 48 and running about 4.75% 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.
- Within Pennsylvania, this work ranks 420 of 492 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for pharmacy aides — median $39,470 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $32,682 retained, $33,520 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $38,310 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Pharmacy Aides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,910 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,470 |
| Top tenth earn over | $43,360 |
| This salary | $39,470 |
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 Pennsylvania | $32,682 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,894 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,359 |
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 | $37,962 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,644 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Pennsylvania earn less than $39,470. The published range is $28,910 up to $43,360, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $32,682 take-home in Pennsylvania comes from $39,470. 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 420 of 492.
- Two cautions on $33,520, the adjusted value of that $39,470 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Pennsylvania. 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 420 of 492 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for pharmacy aides in Pennsylvania the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $28,910 to $43,360. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $32,682, from $39,470, assumes a single Pennsylvania 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 420 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 8 of 48 for it.
- This $33,520 adjusted figure, worked from $39,470, 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 420 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 420 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $28,910 at the tenth percentile, $43,360 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Pennsylvania is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $33,520 in national terms.
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 Pennsylvania adds its own income tax on top — which is why $32,682 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($28,910 to $43,360) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Pennsylvania rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Pennsylvania'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 $33,520 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 $32,682 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.