Social and Human Service Assistants in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,154
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$8,566
18.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,608
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$47,720
Kept after tax
$39,154
Worth in national money
$38,608
State rank
7
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Rhode Island's middle earner gets $47,720, putting the state 7 of 51 — about 3.9% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 332 among 452 occupations Rhode Island publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $47,720, tax leaves $39,154, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $38,608 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $50,870, since top earners drag the number up.
- For social and human service assistants, Rhode Island sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $47,720, ranking 7 of 51 and running about 3.9% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Position 332 of 452 in Rhode Island places social and human service assistants in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for social and human service assistants — median $47,720 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $39,154 retained, $38,608 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $50,870 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 | $36,580 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,720 |
| Top tenth earn over | $71,270 |
| This salary | $47,720 |
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 Rhode Island | $39,154 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,523 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,093 |
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 | $46,016 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,740 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $47,720 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,580 and the ninetieth is $71,270 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $39,154 take-home in Rhode Island comes from $47,720. 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 332 of 452.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $38,608 uses one figure for the whole of Rhode Island. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 452 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 332.
- The Rhode Island median of $47,720 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,580 to $71,270. 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 $39,154, from $47,720, assumes a single Rhode Island 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 332 of 452 locally, and the state ranks 7 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $38,608, worked from $47,720, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Rhode Island address, on work sitting at 332 of 452 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 $50,870, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $36,580 and the top tenth $71,270 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $38,608 of national purchasing power.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $39,154 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 Rhode Island is $50,870. 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 ($36,580) and the ninetieth ($71,270) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $38,608 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 $39,154 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.