Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,457
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$13,493
20.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,811
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$64,950
Kept after tax
$51,457
Worth in national money
$47,811
State rank
3
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. New York pays this job a middle wage of $64,950, ranking 3 of 51 states and sitting about 30.71% above the national middle.
- Against other work in New York, this sits in the middle: 258 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $64,950, tax leaves $51,457 — and because New York is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $47,811 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $67,130, since top earners drag the number up.
- New York's median for refuse and recyclable material collectors is $64,950, about 30.71% above the national figure and 3 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Refuse and recyclable material collectors ranks 258 of 493 occupations in New York 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, $51,457 remains from the New York median of $64,950 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $47,811 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $67,130 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $42,740 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $86,720 |
| This salary | $64,950 |
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 York | $51,457 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $54,367 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,137 |
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 | $61,328 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,841 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $64,950 as a midpoint for New York, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $42,740 and the ninetieth is $86,720 — 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 New York's $51,457, worked from $64,950. 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 258 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $47,811 uses one figure for the whole of New York. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 258.
- The New York median of $64,950 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $42,740 to $86,720. 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 New York take-home of $51,457, on $64,950 for work ranking 258 of 493 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 258 of 493 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $47,811, worked from $64,950, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular New York address, on work sitting at 258 of 493 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 $67,130, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $42,740 at the bottom tenth to $86,720 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in New York run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $47,811 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 New York's own levy, $51,457 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 New York is $67,130. 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 ($42,740 to $86,720) 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 York rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $47,811 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 $51,457 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.