Postal Service Mail Carriers in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$46,150
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$11,320
19.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,869
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
$57,470
Kept after tax
$46,150
Worth in national money
$52,869
State rank
51
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for postal service mail carriers is on the low side in Mississippi. The middle earner gets $57,470. That is 51 of 51 states, and about 5.09% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Mississippi, this sits in the middle: 179 of 486 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Mississippi does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $57,470 you keep $46,150, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $52,869 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $59,590, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For postal service mail carriers, Mississippi sits in the lower band at $57,470, ranking 51 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 5.09%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Postal service mail carriers ranks 179 of 486 occupations in Mississippi 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.
- After federal, FICA and Mississippi income tax, retained pay for postal service mail carriers on $57,470 is $46,150. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $52,869 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $59,590 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Postal Service Mail Carriers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $42,390 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,470 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,040 |
| This salary | $57,470 |
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 Mississippi | $46,150 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,357 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,106 |
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 | $54,724 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,756 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $57,470 as a midpoint for Mississippi, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $42,390 and the ninetieth is $81,040 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Mississippi the take-home figure of $46,150, from $57,470, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 179 of 486 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Mississippi, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $52,869, the adjusted value of that $57,470 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 179 of 486 in the state.
- The Mississippi median of $57,470 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $42,390 to $81,040. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Mississippi is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $46,150 from $57,470. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 179 of 486 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Mississippi, so $52,869 — the adjusted value of that $57,470 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 179 of 486 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $59,590, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $42,390 at the bottom tenth to $81,040 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 $52,869.
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 Mississippi adds its own income tax on top — which is why $46,150 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 Mississippi is $59,590. 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 ($42,390 to $81,040) 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 $52,869 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 $46,150 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.
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.