Sales and Related Workers, All Other in Alabama

A bright independent shop with household goods on wooden shelves.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$37,674

after federal, FICA and Alabama tax

Tax takes

$8,986

19.3% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$41,874

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

$46,660

Kept after tax

$37,674

Worth in national money

$41,874

State rank

23

of 48 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Alabama sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $46,660, ranking 23 of 48 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
  • Against other work in Alabama, this sits in the middle: 291 of 482 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 $46,660 you keep $37,674 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $41,874 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $57,440, since top earners drag the number up.
  • Alabama occupies the middle band for sales and related workers, all other: a median of $46,660, ranking 23 of 48. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
  • Sales and related workers, all other ranks 291 of 482 occupations in Alabama 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 Alabama is $37,674 after the full tax stack, from $46,660. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $41,874 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $57,440 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

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: Sales and Related Workers, All Other

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$26,510
Half earn under$46,660
Top tenth earn over$97,780
This salary$46,660

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
+$1,997take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Alabama$37,674
Take-home in Texas$39,671
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,050

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$47,929
$47,929in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$44,175
Raise you would need+$1,269
Prices in Texas97 vs 90

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

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $46,660 as a midpoint for Alabama, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $26,510 and the ninetieth is $97,780 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • That $37,674 take-home in Alabama comes from $46,660. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 291 of 482.
  • One number stands for prices across all of Alabama, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $41,874, the adjusted value of that $46,660 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 291 of 482 in the state.
  • The Alabama median of $46,660 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $26,510 to $97,780. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
  • Retained pay of $37,674, from $46,660, assumes a single Alabama filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 291 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 23 of 48 for it.
  • Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alabama, so $41,874 — the adjusted value of that $46,660 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 291 of 482 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $57,440, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

Why is the pay range for this job so wide?

One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $26,510, the highest tenth $97,780, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

More than the figure suggests. Prices in Alabama sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $41,874 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 Alabama's own levy, $37,674 remains.

Why is this job missing from some states?

A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.

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 $57,440. 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 ($26,510) and the ninetieth ($97,780) 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?

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 $41,874 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 $37,674 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.

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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.