Social and Human Service Assistants in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,291
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$6,439
15.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,916
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$40,730
Kept after tax
$34,291
Worth in national money
$33,916
State rank
33
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Arizona sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $40,730, ranking 33 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Measured against other jobs in Arizona, this one sits low: 419 of 491 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $40,730, tax leaves $34,291, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $33,916 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $42,360, since top earners drag the number up.
- Arizona occupies the middle band for social and human service assistants: a median of $40,730, ranking 33 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Social and human service assistants occupies position 419 of 491 in Arizona's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for social and human service assistants — median $40,730 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $34,291 retained, $33,916 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $42,360 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Social and Human Service Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,630 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,730 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,950 |
| This salary | $40,730 |
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 Arizona | $34,291 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,907 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,005 |
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 | $39,964 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,425 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $40,730 as a midpoint for Arizona, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,630 and the ninetieth is $49,950 — 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 Arizona's $34,291, worked from $40,730. 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 419 of 491.
- Two cautions on $33,916, the adjusted value of that $40,730 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arizona. 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 419 of 491 locally.
- The Arizona median of $40,730 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,630 to $49,950. 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 Arizona take-home of $34,291, on $40,730 for work ranking 419 of 491 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 419 of 491 in the state.
- This $33,916 adjusted figure, worked from $40,730, 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 419 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 419 of 491 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 $42,360, 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?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $35,630 at the tenth percentile, $49,950 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Arizona costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $33,916 rather than its face figure.
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; Arizona then takes its own share, leaving $34,291.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 Arizona is $42,360. 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 ($35,630 to $49,950) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arizona rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $33,916 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $34,291 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.