Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors in Vermont
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,445
after federal, FICA and Vermont tax
Tax takes
$9,515
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,923
Vermont costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Vermont — 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
$51,960
Kept after tax
$42,445
Worth in national money
$43,923
State rank
18
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Vermont pays this job around $51,960 at the midpoint, 18 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Vermont, this sits in the middle: 301 of 453 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $51,960 you keep $42,445 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $43,923 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $54,110, since top earners drag the number up.
- For refuse and recyclable material collectors the Vermont median is $51,960, ranking 18 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Refuse and recyclable material collectors ranks 301 of 453 occupations in Vermont 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 in Vermont is $42,445 after the full tax stack, from $51,960. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $43,923 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $54,110 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $41,240 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,960 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,070 |
| This salary | $51,960 |
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 Vermont | $42,445 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,930 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,283 |
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 | $50,113 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,552 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Vermont earn less than $51,960. The published range is $41,240 up to $63,070, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Vermont the take-home figure of $42,445, from $51,960, 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 301 of 453 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $43,923, the adjusted value of that $51,960 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Vermont. 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 301 of 453 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for refuse and recyclable material collectors in Vermont the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $41,240 to $63,070. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Vermont is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $42,445 from $51,960. 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 301 of 453 locally.
- This $43,923 adjusted figure, worked from $51,960, 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 301 of 453 in the state. The occupation ranks 301 of 453 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $54,110 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $41,240 and the top tenth $63,070, so most people doing this work in Vermont sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Vermont sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $43,923 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Vermont's own levy, $42,445 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 Vermont is $54,110. 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 ($41,240 to $63,070) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Vermont rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Vermont'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 $43,923 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 $42,445 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Vermont 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.