Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators in Oregon
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,179
after federal, FICA and Oregon tax
Tax takes
$13,711
23.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,188
Oregon costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Oregon — 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
$57,890
Kept after tax
$44,179
Worth in national money
$42,188
State rank
34
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Oregon pays this job around $57,890 at the midpoint, 34 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 295 among 489 occupations Oregon publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $57,890, tax leaves $44,179 — and because Oregon is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $42,188 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $60,450, since top earners drag the number up.
- For postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators the Oregon median is $57,890, ranking 34 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 295 of 489 in Oregon places postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators 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, $44,179 remains from the Oregon median of $57,890 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $42,188 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $60,450 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,440 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,890 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,280 |
| This salary | $57,890 |
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 Oregon | $44,179 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,695 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,922 |
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 | $52,271 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,581 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 105 |
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 sorters, processors, and processing machine operators in Oregon earn under $57,890 and half over. The published range runs $47,440 at the tenth percentile to $75,280 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $44,179 take-home in Oregon comes from $57,890. 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 295 of 489.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $42,188 uses one figure for the whole of Oregon. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 489 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 295.
- Figures are distribution medians for postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators in Oregon, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $47,440 to $75,280; 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 $44,179, from $57,890, assumes a single Oregon 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 295 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 34 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $42,188, worked from $57,890, 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 Oregon address, on work sitting at 295 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $60,450, 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 $47,440 at the bottom tenth to $75,280 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Oregon run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $42,188 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Oregon adds its own income tax on top — which is why $44,179 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 Oregon is $60,450. 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 ($47,440 to $75,280) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Oregon rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Oregon's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $42,188 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 $44,179 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Oregon 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.