Social and Human Service Assistants in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,429
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$7,971
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,700
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$42,400
Kept after tax
$34,429
Worth in national money
$31,700
State rank
31
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Hawaii is 31 of 51 states for this job, with a middle wage of $42,400. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within Hawaii this is lower-paid work. Of 437 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 389. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $42,400, tax leaves $34,429 — and because Hawaii is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $31,700 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $44,580, since top earners drag the number up.
- Hawaii ranks 31 of 51 for social and human service assistants at $42,400. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation Hawaii reports, social and human service assistants ranks 389 of 437, 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.
- After tax, $34,429 remains from the Hawaii median of $42,400 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $31,700 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $44,580 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 | $36,530 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $42,400 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,030 |
| This salary | $42,400 |
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 Hawaii | $34,429 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,248 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,602 |
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 | $40,136 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,775 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $42,400 as a midpoint for Hawaii, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,530 and the ninetieth is $58,030 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Hawaii the take-home figure of $34,429, from $42,400, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 389 of 437 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $31,700, the adjusted value of that $42,400 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Hawaii. 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 389 of 437 locally.
- The Hawaii median of $42,400 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,530 to $58,030. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Hawaii is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $34,429 from $42,400. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 389 of 437 locally.
- This $31,700 adjusted figure, worked from $42,400, 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 389 of 437 in the state. The occupation ranks 389 of 437 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 $44,580, 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 $36,530 at the bottom tenth to $58,030 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $31,700 of national purchasing power.
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 Hawaii's own levy, $34,429 remains.
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 Hawaii is $44,580. 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 ($36,530 to $58,030) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Hawaii rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $31,700 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 $34,429 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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.