Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,477
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$7,903
17.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,412
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$44,380
Kept after tax
$36,477
Worth in national money
$37,412
State rank
18
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Pennsylvania pays this job around $44,380 at the midpoint, 18 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes, this job lands at 386. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $44,380, tax leaves $36,477, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $37,412 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $51,020, since top earners drag the number up.
- For reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks the Pennsylvania median is $44,380, ranking 18 of 50 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.
- Within Pennsylvania, this work ranks 386 of 492 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks — median $44,380 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $36,477 retained, $37,412 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $51,020 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,380 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,540 |
| This salary | $44,380 |
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 Pennsylvania | $36,477 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,839 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,527 |
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 | $42,684 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,847 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
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 reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks in Pennsylvania earn under $44,380 and half over. The published range runs $31,990 at the tenth percentile to $81,540 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Pennsylvania's $36,477, worked from $44,380. 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 386 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of Pennsylvania, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $37,412, the adjusted value of that $44,380 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 386 of 492 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks in Pennsylvania, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,990 to $81,540; 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.
- The Pennsylvania take-home of $36,477, on $44,380 for work ranking 386 of 492 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 386 of 492 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Pennsylvania, so $37,412 — the adjusted value of that $44,380 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 386 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $51,020, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $31,990 and the top tenth $81,540 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $37,412.
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 Pennsylvania's own levy, $36,477 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Pennsylvania is $51,020. 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 ($31,990) and the ninetieth ($81,540) 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?
Pennsylvania'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 $37,412 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 $36,477 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.