Recreation Workers in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$23,687
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$4,373
15.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$27,135
Mississippi costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Mississippi — 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
$28,060
Kept after tax
$23,687
Worth in national money
$27,135
State rank
50
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Mississippi pays recreation workers a middle wage of $28,060, 50 of 51 states and about 23.25% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Mississippi this is lower-paid work. Of 486 occupations the state publishes figures for, recreation workers ranks 455. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $28,060 you keep $23,687 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $27,135 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $29,170, since top earners drag the number up.
- Mississippi's $28,060 median for recreation workers places it 50 of 51 states, about 23.25% 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 Mississippi reports, recreation workers ranks 455 of 486, 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.
- Retained pay in Mississippi is $23,687 after the full tax stack, from $28,060. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $27,135 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $29,170 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Recreation Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $19,350 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $28,060 |
| Top tenth earn over | $40,710 |
| This salary | $28,060 |
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 Mississippi | $23,687 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $24,717 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,699 |
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 | $26,809 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,044 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $28,060 as a midpoint for Mississippi, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $19,350 and the ninetieth is $40,710 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Mississippi's $23,687, worked from $28,060. 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 455 of 486.
- One number stands for prices across all of Mississippi, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $27,135, the adjusted value of that $28,060 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 455 of 486 in the state.
- The Mississippi median of $28,060 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $19,350 to $40,710. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Mississippi take-home of $23,687, on $28,060 for work ranking 455 of 486 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 455 of 486 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Mississippi, so $27,135 — the adjusted value of that $28,060 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 455 of 486 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 $29,170, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $19,350, the highest tenth $40,710, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $27,135.
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 Mississippi adds its own income tax on top — which is why $23,687 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 Mississippi is $29,170. 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 ($19,350) and the ninetieth ($40,710) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Mississippi'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 $27,135 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 $23,687 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Mississippi 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.