Protective Service Workers, All Other in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,205
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$9,835
19.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,145
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$50,040
Kept after tax
$40,205
Worth in national money
$37,145
State rank
16
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Massachusetts is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $50,040, which ranks 16 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 17.63% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Massachusetts, this sits in the middle: 360 of 485 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $50,040, tax leaves $40,205 — and because Massachusetts is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $37,145 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $53,850, since top earners drag the number up.
- Massachusetts ranks 16 of 51 states publishing a median for protective service workers, all other, at $50,040 — about 17.63% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Protective service workers, all other ranks 360 of 485 occupations in Massachusetts 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 tax, $40,205 remains from the Massachusetts median of $50,040 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $37,145 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $53,850 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 | $33,680 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $50,040 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,150 |
| This salary | $50,040 |
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 Massachusetts | $40,205 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,387 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,474 |
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 | $47,324 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,830 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
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 protective service workers, all other in Massachusetts earn under $50,040 and half over. The published range runs $33,680 at the tenth percentile to $79,150 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Massachusetts's $40,205, worked from $50,040. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 360 of 485.
- One number stands for prices across all of Massachusetts, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $37,145, the adjusted value of that $50,040 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 360 of 485 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for protective service workers, all other in Massachusetts, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $33,680 to $79,150; 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.
- The Massachusetts take-home of $40,205, on $50,040 for work ranking 360 of 485 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 360 of 485 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Massachusetts, so $37,145 — the adjusted value of that $50,040 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 360 of 485 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 $53,850 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 $33,680 and the top tenth $79,150 — 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 $37,145 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Massachusetts's own levy, $40,205 remains.
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 Massachusetts is $53,850. 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 ($33,680) and the ninetieth ($79,150) 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?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $37,145 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 $40,205 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.