Postal Service Mail Carriers in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,468
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$11,662
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,433
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$61,130
Kept after tax
$49,468
Worth in national money
$45,433
State rank
13
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for postal service mail carriers is strong here. New Jersey's middle earner gets $61,130, putting the state 13 of 51 — about 0.96% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Postal service mail carriers ranks 280 among 490 occupations New Jersey publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $61,130, tax leaves $49,468 — and because New Jersey is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $45,433 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $63,230, since top earners drag the number up.
- For postal service mail carriers, New Jersey sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $61,130, ranking 13 of 51 and running about 0.96% 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.
- Position 280 of 490 in New Jersey places postal service mail carriers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After tax, $49,468 remains from the New Jersey median of $61,130 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $45,433 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $63,230 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $43,120 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,130 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,040 |
| This salary | $61,130 |
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 New Jersey | $49,468 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,298 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,357 |
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 | $58,853 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,897 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
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 postal service mail carriers in New Jersey earn under $61,130 and half over. The published range runs $43,120 at the tenth percentile to $81,040 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $49,468 take-home in New Jersey comes from $61,130. 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 280 of 490.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $45,433 uses one figure for the whole of New Jersey. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 490 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 280.
- Figures are distribution medians for postal service mail carriers in New Jersey, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $43,120 to $81,040; 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 $49,468, from $61,130, assumes a single New Jersey 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 280 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 13 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $45,433, worked from $61,130, 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 New Jersey address, on work sitting at 280 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $63,230, 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 $43,120 at the bottom tenth to $81,040 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. New Jersey costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $45,433 rather than its face figure.
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 New Jersey adds its own income tax on top — which is why $49,468 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 New Jersey is $63,230. 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 ($43,120 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 New Jersey rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $45,433 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $49,468 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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.