School Bus Monitors in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$20,114
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$3,386
14.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$23,042
Mississippi costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Mississippi — 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
$23,500
Kept after tax
$20,114
Worth in national money
$23,042
State rank
50
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Mississippi pays school bus monitors a middle wage of $23,500, 50 of 50 states and about 33.05% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Mississippi this is lower-paid work. Of 486 occupations the state publishes figures for, school bus monitors ranks 475. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $23,500 you keep $20,114 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $23,042 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $24,460, since top earners drag the number up.
- Mississippi's $23,500 median for school bus monitors places it 50 of 50 states, about 33.05% 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.
- Against every occupation Mississippi reports, school bus monitors ranks 475 of 486, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Mississippi is $20,114 after the full tax stack, from $23,500. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $23,042 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $24,460 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: School Bus Monitors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $16,910 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $23,500 |
| Top tenth earn over | $34,280 |
| This salary | $23,500 |
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 Mississippi | $20,114 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $20,962 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,471 |
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 | $22,470 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,736 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $23,500 as a midpoint for Mississippi, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $16,910 and the ninetieth is $34,280 — 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 Mississippi's $20,114, worked from $23,500. 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 475 of 486.
- One number stands for prices across all of Mississippi, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $23,042, the adjusted value of that $23,500 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 475 of 486 in the state.
- The Mississippi median of $23,500 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $16,910 to $34,280. 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 Mississippi take-home of $20,114, on $23,500 for work ranking 475 of 486 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 475 of 486 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Mississippi, so $23,042 — the adjusted value of that $23,500 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 475 of 486 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 $24,460 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $16,910 at the bottom tenth to $34,280 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Mississippi sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $23,042 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Mississippi then takes its own share, leaving $20,114.
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 Mississippi is $24,460. 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 ($16,910) and the ninetieth ($34,280) 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?
Mississippi'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 $23,042 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 $20,114 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Mississippi 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.