Roofers in South Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,230
after federal, FICA and South Carolina tax
Tax takes
$7,530
16.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,029
South Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Carolina — 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
$45,760
Kept after tax
$38,230
Worth in national money
$41,029
State rank
45
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for roofers is on the low side in South Carolina. The middle earner gets $45,760. That is 45 of 51 states, and about 17.46% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in South Carolina, this sits in the middle: 331 of 492 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 $45,760 you keep $38,230 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $41,029 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $50,180, since top earners drag the number up.
- For roofers, South Carolina sits in the lower band at $45,760, ranking 45 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 17.46%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Roofers ranks 331 of 492 occupations in South Carolina 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 South Carolina is $38,230 after the full tax stack, from $45,760. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $41,029 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $50,180 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Roofers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,030 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $45,760 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,860 |
| This salary | $45,760 |
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 South Carolina | $38,230 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,948 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$949 |
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
| To match take-home only | $44,866 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,147 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
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 roofers in South Carolina earn under $45,760 and half over. The published range runs $36,030 at the tenth percentile to $61,860 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 South Carolina's $38,230, worked from $45,760. 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 331 of 492.
- Two cautions on $41,029, the adjusted value of that $45,760 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Carolina. 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 331 of 492 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for roofers in South Carolina, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,030 to $61,860; 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 South Carolina take-home of $38,230, on $45,760 for work ranking 331 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 331 of 492 in the state.
- This $41,029 adjusted figure, worked from $45,760, 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 331 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 331 of 492 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 $50,180, 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 $36,030 at the bottom tenth to $61,860 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in South Carolina sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $41,029 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 South Carolina adds its own income tax on top — which is why $38,230 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 South Carolina is $50,180. 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 ($36,030 to $61,860) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Carolina rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Carolina'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 $41,029 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 $38,230 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and South Carolina 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.