Roofers in Alabama

A hard hat, safety glasses and tool belt beside timber house framing.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$36,922

after federal, FICA and Alabama tax

Tax takes

$8,748

19.2% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$41,039

Alabama costs less than average

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

$45,670

Kept after tax

$36,922

Worth in national money

$41,039

State rank

47

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • The nominal figure here is modest. Alabama pays roofers a middle wage of $45,670, 47 of 51 states and about 17.62% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
  • Middle of the local pack. Of 482 occupations Alabama reports figures for, this is number 304.
  • Here is where Alabama does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $45,670 you keep $36,922, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $41,039 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $47,860, because the best-paid pull it up.
  • Alabama's $45,670 median for roofers places it 47 of 51 states, about 17.62% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
  • In Alabama's occupational distribution, roofers sits at 304 of 482 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
  • After federal, FICA and Alabama income tax, retained pay for roofers on $45,670 is $36,922. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $41,039 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $47,860 sits above the median, the right skew typical of 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: Roofers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$36,120
Half earn under$45,670
Top tenth earn over$60,920
This salary$45,670

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

Compare with
+$1,953take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Alabama$36,922
Take-home in Texas$38,876
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,033

The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.

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

Moving to
$0$46,919
$46,919in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$43,239
Raise you would need+$1,249
Prices in Texas97 vs 90

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $45,670 as a midpoint for Alabama, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,120 and the ninetieth is $60,920 — 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 Alabama's $36,922, worked from $45,670. 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 304 of 482.
  • Two cautions on $41,039, the adjusted value of that $45,670 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alabama. 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 304 of 482 locally.
  • The Alabama median of $45,670 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,120 to $60,920. 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 Alabama take-home of $36,922, on $45,670 for work ranking 304 of 482 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 304 of 482 in the state.
  • This $41,039 adjusted figure, worked from $45,670, 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 304 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 304 of 482 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 $47,860 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 $36,120 and the top tenth $60,920, so most people doing this work in Alabama sit within a fairly tight band.

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 $41,039.

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 Alabama adds its own income tax on top — which is why $36,922 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 Alabama is $47,860. 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 ($36,120 to $60,920) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alabama rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Alabama'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 $41,039 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 $36,922 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Alabama 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.