Protective Service Workers, All Other in Florida
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$37,783
after federal, FICA and Florida tax
Tax takes
$6,527
14.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,522
Florida costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Florida — 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
$44,310
Kept after tax
$37,783
Worth in national money
$36,522
State rank
32
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Florida pays this job around $44,310 at the midpoint, 32 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 367 among 493 occupations Florida publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $44,310, tax leaves $37,783 — and because Florida is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $36,522 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $48,840, since top earners drag the number up.
- For protective service workers, all other the Florida median is $44,310, ranking 32 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 367 of 493 in Florida places protective service workers, all other 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, $37,783 remains from the Florida median of $44,310 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $36,522 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $48,840 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Protective Service Workers, All Other
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,430 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,310 |
| Top tenth earn over | $72,090 |
| This salary | $44,310 |
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 Florida | $37,783 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,783 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,359 |
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 | $44,310 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,853 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 103 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $44,310 as a midpoint for Florida, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,430 and the ninetieth is $72,090 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Florida the take-home figure of $37,783, from $44,310, 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 367 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $36,522, the adjusted value of that $44,310 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Florida. 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 367 of 493 locally.
- The Florida median of $44,310 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,430 to $72,090. 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 Florida is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $37,783 from $44,310. 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 367 of 493 locally.
- This $36,522 adjusted figure, worked from $44,310, 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 367 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 367 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $48,840 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $34,430 and the top tenth $72,090 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $36,522 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $37,783 of this wage reaches your account, because Florida takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Florida is $48,840. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($34,430) and the ninetieth ($72,090) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Florida's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $36,522 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Florida levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $37,783 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.