Recreation Workers
What the pay figures show
- The District of Columbia pays recreation workers the most on paper: $46,460. Two things happen before that money is yours. State tax takes a share, which puts Washington in front. Then local prices decide what is left, and South Dakota wins at $41,028. The best offer and the best deal are not the same place.
- For recreation workers, the District of Columbia's $46,460 median leads nominally and survives neither adjustment. State income tax differentials alone are sufficient to promote Washington; regional price parity then promotes South Dakota, whose $41,028 real figure is the highest purchasing power available in this occupation. Nominal wage comparisons across states are therefore a poor guide to relocation, and the error compounds rather than cancels.
Compare this career across states
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Pay by state · May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
National median
$36,560
People doing it
331,490
Highest paid
$46,460
DC
Best off, really
$41,028
SD, after tax and prices
Lowest tenth
$27,600
Highest tenth
$50,410
Lowest, really
$26,444
AL
States with data
51
National average
$38,520
mean, not median
Prices where it goes furthest
88.09%
SD, against a national 100
Where this job actually pays best
- Nationally, this job pays within a fairly narrow band. Adjust for tax and for local prices and the band tightens again, to between $26,444 and $41,028. Geography is not the main lever on pay here.
- About 331,490 Americans work in this job, on a middle wage of $36,560. Big enough that where you live changes the arithmetic.
- Coverage is complete — all 51 jurisdictions publish this, on a middle wage of $36,560. Nothing is missing.
- Wages for recreation workers cluster comparatively tightly across states, and the clustering strengthens after tax and price deflation — a real range of $26,444 to $41,028. Occupation-level factors such as specialisation and employer type therefore explain more of an individual's pay here than location does.
- With 331,490 workers, recreation workers sits in the middle of the BLS headcount distribution. The state-level spread described above therefore applies to a meaningful population rather than a niche one.
- Coverage for recreation workers is complete at 51 jurisdictions. No suppression applies, so the highest and lowest figures above are genuinely the national extremes.
Pay band: Recreation Workers
The national median for this job
50thpercentile, roughly
| Lowest tenth earn under | $27,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,560 |
| Top tenth earn over | $50,410 |
| This salary | $36,560 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
Where these numbers come from
| BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates, time-series bulk download (oe.data.0.Current) | as of 2025-05-01 |
|---|
Steps in Recreation Workers
The national median for this job
$36,560around the 50th percentile
| Lowest tenth | $27,600 |
|---|---|
| Middle | $36,560 |
| Top tenth | $50,410 |
The five points BLS publishes. Nothing between them is invented.
Recreation Workers, state by state
The national median for this job
51states publish pay for this job
| Lowest | Arkansas · $27,770 |
|---|---|
| Highest | District of Columbia · $46,460 |
| Spread | $18,690 |
One dot per state that publishes this job. A missing state means suppressed data, not zero pay.
Best paid, and best off
The national median for this job
| Texas pays | $32,720 |
|---|---|
| Worth, after local prices | $33,671 |
Median pay against the same pay once BEA price parities are applied.
Every state, three ways
Sorted by what the money is actually worth. "Kept" is take-home for a single filer after federal, FICA and state income tax. "Really worth" divides that by the state's own price level, so a dollar in each row buys the same thing. Tap a state to put your own salary into it. States BLS does not publish for this job are absent — that means no published figure, not no work.
| State | Median pay | Kept after tax | Really worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| SD | $42,270 | $36,144 | $41,028 |
| ND | $37,310 | $32,159 | $36,308 |
| WA | $44,890 | $38,249 | $35,233 |
| DC | $46,460 | $37,889 | $34,195 |
| MT | $35,090 | $29,482 | $32,670 |
| VT | $37,450 | $31,273 | $32,362 |
| IA | $33,700 | $28,589 | $32,207 |
| NE | $34,590 | $29,103 | $32,202 |
| WI | $35,530 | $29,830 | $32,042 |
| ME | $37,450 | $31,010 | $31,937 |
| CO | $38,820 | $32,372 | $31,931 |
| AK | $37,510 | $32,319 | $31,774 |
| MO | $34,320 | $29,080 | $31,691 |
| MN | $37,510 | $31,131 | $31,632 |
| TN | $33,580 | $29,162 | $31,521 |
| MI | $35,090 | $29,134 | $30,933 |
| HI | $41,000 | $33,405 | $30,757 |
| OH | $32,420 | $28,054 | $30,556 |
| PA | $35,710 | $29,777 | $30,540 |
| NH | $37,040 | $31,942 | $30,321 |
| NM | $31,900 | $27,400 | $30,314 |
| OK | $31,580 | $26,634 | $30,168 |
| AZ | $35,800 | $30,453 | $30,120 |
| KY | $32,400 | $27,197 | $30,063 |
| RI | $36,340 | $30,436 | $30,013 |
| OR | $39,610 | $31,091 | $29,689 |
| CA | $39,780 | $33,416 | $29,682 |
| FL | $35,490 | $30,696 | $29,672 |
| VA | $36,120 | $29,886 | $29,664 |
| WY | $30,720 | $26,864 | $29,570 |
| MD | $37,200 | $30,667 | $29,497 |
| CT | $36,610 | $30,559 | $29,471 |
| IL | $35,480 | $29,077 | $29,413 |
| NC | $32,720 | $27,674 | $29,397 |
| TX | $32,720 | $28,471 | $29,298 |
| KS | $31,760 | $26,216 | $29,140 |
| MA | $38,540 | $31,540 | $29,139 |
| SC | $31,420 | $27,099 | $29,084 |
| NY | $38,040 | $31,288 | $29,071 |
| NJ | $36,880 | $31,240 | $28,691 |
| UT | $32,890 | $27,144 | $28,572 |
| DE | $33,790 | $28,022 | $28,233 |
| GA | $32,540 | $27,301 | $28,233 |
| WV | $29,710 | $25,334 | $28,220 |
| ID | $30,100 | $25,623 | $28,027 |
| LA | $28,580 | $24,673 | $27,928 |
| IN | $30,190 | $25,577 | $27,745 |
| AR | $27,770 | $23,906 | $27,635 |
| NV | $30,150 | $26,406 | $27,228 |
| MS | $28,060 | $23,687 | $27,135 |
| AL | $28,360 | $23,792 | $26,444 |
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle of the range, not a starting salary and not an offer. Half of recreation workers earn less than the figures here and half earn more, and experience, employer and city move an individual a long way from the middle. Nationally the middle earns $36,560.
- One filer, no dependants, nothing paid into a pension before tax — that is the household behind every take-home figure for recreation workers. It is the simplest case on purpose, so the states can be compared against each other rather than against each other's family circumstances. City income taxes are not counted. On that household, Washington keeps the most at $38,249.
- One price figure per state stands behind the real-terms numbers for recreation workers. Inside any state, a big city costs far more than a small town, so this is a fair way to compare states with each other and a poor way to price a specific move. The wage figures and the price figures are also from different years. At the bottom of the range sits Alabama, on $26,444.
- Figures are medians of the published wage distribution for recreation workers, not entry-level or offer wages. The national median is $36,560, with half of workers below it; dispersion within a state routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, driven by tenure, employer size, sector and metropolitan area. An individual's position in the distribution is not predictable from geography alone.
- The household modeled for recreation workers is a single filer, standard deduction, no dependants, no pre-tax contributions. Holding the household constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful; it also means the absolute figures overstate liability for most real filers. On that basis Washington retains the most, $38,249. Municipal and school-district income taxes are not included in any state.
- Real-terms results for recreation workers rest on statewide regional price parities, which average over intra-state variation that is itself larger than much of the interstate variation. They support comparison between states and not the pricing of an individual relocation; Alabama anchors the distribution at $26,444. Wage and price series are published on separate cycles and therefore carry different reference periods.