Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,605
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$10,025
18.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,966
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$54,630
Kept after tax
$44,605
Worth in national money
$40,966
State rank
17
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. New Jersey's middle earner gets $54,630, putting the state 17 of 51 — about 9.94% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in New Jersey, this sits in the middle: 330 of 490 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $54,630 the take-home is $44,605. But New Jersey costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $40,966 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is lower, $54,260, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- For refuse and recyclable material collectors, New Jersey sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $54,630, ranking 17 of 51 and running about 9.94% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Refuse and recyclable material collectors ranks 330 of 490 occupations in New Jersey 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.
- Retained pay after federal, FICA and New Jersey income tax is $44,605 for refuse and recyclable material collectors, from $54,630. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $40,966. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $54,260 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
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: Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,590 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $54,630 |
| Top tenth earn over | $71,230 |
| This salary | $54,630 |
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 New Jersey | $44,605 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $46,075 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,449 |
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 | $52,800 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,799 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $54,630 as a midpoint for New Jersey, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,590 and the ninetieth is $71,230 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $44,605 take-home in New Jersey comes from $54,630. 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 330 of 490.
- Two cautions on $40,966, the adjusted value of that $54,630 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Jersey. 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 330 of 490 locally.
- The New Jersey median of $54,630 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,590 to $71,230. 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 $44,605, from $54,630, assumes a single New Jersey 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 330 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 17 of 51 for it.
- This $40,966 adjusted figure, worked from $54,630, 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 330 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 330 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $37,590 and the top tenth $71,230, so most people doing this work in New Jersey sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in New Jersey run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $40,966 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 New Jersey adds its own income tax on top — which is why $44,605 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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($37,590 to $71,230) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Jersey rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $40,966 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 $44,605 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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.