Receptionists and Information Clerks in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,155
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$5,585
15.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,862
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — 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
$35,740
Kept after tax
$30,155
Worth in national money
$32,862
State rank
39
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Missouri pays this job a middle wage of $35,740, 39 of 51 states and about 5.97% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Missouri this is lower-paid work. Of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 441. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Missouri is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $35,740 the take-home is $30,155; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $32,862 would nationally. The average comes to $37,040, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Missouri's $35,740 median for receptionists and information clerks places it 39 of 51 states, about 5.97% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Missouri reports, receptionists and information clerks ranks 441 of 488, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Post-tax income for receptionists and information clerks in Missouri, on $35,740, is $30,155 — equivalent to $32,862 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $37,040 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Receptionists and Information Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,230 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,740 |
| Top tenth earn over | $46,660 |
| This salary | $35,740 |
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 Missouri | $30,155 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,897 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,066 |
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 | $34,816 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,290 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $35,740 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,230 and the ninetieth is $46,660 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $30,155 take-home in Missouri comes from $35,740. 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 441 of 488.
- Two cautions on $32,862, the adjusted value of that $35,740 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Missouri. 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 441 of 488 locally.
- The Missouri median of $35,740 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,230 to $46,660. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $30,155, from $35,740, assumes a single Missouri 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 441 of 488 locally, and the state ranks 39 of 51 for it.
- This $32,862 adjusted figure, worked from $35,740, 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 441 of 488 in the state. The occupation ranks 441 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $37,040, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $29,230 at the tenth percentile, $46,660 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Missouri is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $32,862 in national terms.
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 Missouri adds its own income tax on top — which is why $30,155 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 Missouri is $37,040. 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 ($29,230 to $46,660) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Missouri rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri'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 $32,862 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 $30,155 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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.