Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$45,473
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$10,497
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,840
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$55,970
Kept after tax
$45,473
Worth in national money
$44,840
State rank
15
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Rhode Island is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $55,970, which ranks 15 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 12.64% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Rhode Island, this sits in the middle: 282 of 452 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $55,970 the take-home is $45,473, which is worth about $44,840 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is lower, $53,190, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- Rhode Island ranks 15 of 51 states publishing a median for refuse and recyclable material collectors, at $55,970 — about 12.64% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Refuse and recyclable material collectors ranks 282 of 452 occupations in Rhode Island 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.
- Rhode Island's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for refuse and recyclable material collectors on its $55,970 median: $45,473 retained after tax becomes $44,840 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $53,190 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
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Pay band: Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,810 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $55,970 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,370 |
| This salary | $55,970 |
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 Rhode Island | $45,473 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $47,152 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,683 |
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 | $53,881 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,454 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of refuse and recyclable material collectors in Rhode Island earn under $55,970 and half over. The published range runs $34,810 at the tenth percentile to $61,370 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Rhode Island the take-home figure of $45,473, from $55,970, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 282 of 452 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Rhode Island, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $44,840, the adjusted value of that $55,970 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 282 of 452 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for refuse and recyclable material collectors in Rhode Island, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $34,810 to $61,370; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Rhode Island is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $45,473 from $55,970. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 282 of 452 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Rhode Island, so $44,840 — the adjusted value of that $55,970 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 282 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $53,190, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $34,810 and the top tenth $61,370, so most people doing this work in Rhode Island sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $44,840 of national purchasing power.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $45,473 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 Rhode Island is $53,190. 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 ($34,810 to $61,370) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $44,840 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 $45,473 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.