Social Workers, All Other
What the pay figures show
- Nevada comes first for social workers, all other on every measure. $121,830 on paper. Still first after tax. Still first at $97,481 once you adjust for what things cost. When the headline and the reality agree, say so plainly.
- For social workers, all other, Nevada's $121,830 median is the highest nominally, after tax, and after regional price adjustment, at $97,481. Concordance across all three measures is uncommon and worth stating explicitly, because the absence of a reordering is itself the finding for this occupation.
Compare this career across states
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Pay by state · May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
National median
$71,900
People doing it
62,930
Highest paid
$121,830
NV
Best off, really
$97,481
NV, after tax and prices
Lowest tenth
$43,620
Highest tenth
$115,610
Lowest, really
$45,155
CA
States with data
50
National average
$75,910
mean, not median
Prices where it goes furthest
96.98%
NV, against a national 100
Where this job actually pays best
- Where you do this job matters enormously. The best state pays roughly twice what the worst does. Prices alone cannot explain a gap that size. Level everything out and the range still runs $45,155 to $97,481.
- Just 62,930 Americans work in this job. Small fields move around more from year to year.
- Not every state reports this one. The figures here cover 50 jurisdictions, and the middle wage across them is $71,900. A state you do not see is one with no published number, not one paying nothing. Of those published, Nevada pays most.
- Geographic dispersion in social workers, all other is unusually wide: the top state's median is approximately double the bottom's, a spread that price differentials cannot account for. The real-terms range, after tax and price deflation, still runs $45,155 to $97,481 — so the variation reflects genuine differences in local labor markets rather than a nominal illusion.
- 62,930 are employed nationally in social workers, all other — a small occupation, where the state spread above is more sensitive to sample composition than it would be in a large one.
- BLS publishes an occupational median for social workers, all other in 50 jurisdictions, short of the full set. ⚠️ Absence reflects estimate suppression — small samples or disclosure rules — rather than absence of employment, so the state comparison above is over the published subset.
Pay band: Social Workers, All Other
The national median for this job
50thpercentile, roughly
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,620 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $71,900 |
| Top tenth earn over | $115,610 |
| This salary | $71,900 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
Where these numbers come from
| BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates, time-series bulk download (oe.data.0.Current) | as of 2025-05-01 |
|---|
Steps in Social Workers, All Other
The national median for this job
$71,900around the 50th percentile
| Lowest tenth | $43,620 |
|---|---|
| Middle | $71,900 |
| Top tenth | $115,610 |
The five points BLS publishes. Nothing between them is invented.
Social Workers, All Other, state by state
The national median for this job
50states publish pay for this job
| Lowest | Arkansas · $47,790 |
|---|---|
| Highest | Nevada · $121,830 |
| Spread | $74,040 |
One dot per state that publishes this job. A missing state means suppressed data, not zero pay.
Best paid, and best off
The national median for this job
| Texas pays | $84,240 |
|---|---|
| Worth, after local prices | $86,689 |
Median pay against the same pay once BEA price parities are applied.
Every state, three ways
Sorted by what the money is actually worth. "Kept" is take-home for a single filer after federal, FICA and state income tax. "Really worth" divides that by the state's own price level, so a dollar in each row buys the same thing. Tap a state to put your own salary into it. States BLS does not publish for this job are absent — that means no published figure, not no work.
| State | Median pay | Kept after tax | Really worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| NV | $121,830 | $94,537 | $97,481 |
| OK | $101,860 | $76,405 | $86,543 |
| SD | $93,760 | $74,790 | $84,897 |
| RI | $111,590 | $83,386 | $82,225 |
| MO | $98,740 | $74,590 | $81,287 |
| MS | $91,560 | $69,672 | $79,815 |
| AL | $94,270 | $71,196 | $79,133 |
| IA | $91,170 | $70,115 | $78,988 |
| SC | $96,350 | $72,558 | $77,872 |
| NH | $103,710 | $81,790 | $77,640 |
| NM | $90,820 | $69,603 | $77,006 |
| HI | $116,130 | $83,145 | $76,554 |
| WA | $102,520 | $80,953 | $74,568 |
| ND | $81,330 | $65,719 | $74,198 |
| ID | $88,610 | $67,324 | $73,639 |
| KY | $85,160 | $65,877 | $72,818 |
| IN | $84,570 | $65,860 | $71,444 |
| TX | $84,240 | $68,093 | $70,072 |
| DE | $93,250 | $69,508 | $70,031 |
| MA | $101,280 | $75,336 | $69,603 |
| VA | $92,930 | $69,623 | $69,106 |
| NE | $76,520 | $59,884 | $66,261 |
| DC | $96,380 | $71,410 | $64,447 |
| LA | $69,230 | $55,843 | $63,210 |
| WY | $69,020 | $57,386 | $63,167 |
| GA | $78,260 | $60,580 | $62,648 |
| MN | $79,790 | $61,060 | $62,042 |
| PA | $74,430 | $58,907 | $60,417 |
| VT | $73,070 | $57,523 | $59,526 |
| NY | $84,010 | $63,991 | $59,457 |
| MD | $75,600 | $58,787 | $56,545 |
| WV | $62,590 | $50,494 | $56,246 |
| UT | $66,440 | $52,608 | $55,376 |
| NJ | $76,640 | $60,054 | $55,155 |
| NC | $63,490 | $51,170 | $54,355 |
| WI | $62,830 | $50,389 | $54,125 |
| OH | $59,780 | $49,286 | $53,681 |
| MI | $62,140 | $49,719 | $52,790 |
| CT | $69,080 | $54,378 | $52,444 |
| IL | $64,030 | $50,603 | $51,190 |
| AK | $61,220 | $51,370 | $50,504 |
| AZ | $62,150 | $50,966 | $50,409 |
| ME | $60,280 | $47,866 | $49,297 |
| CO | $61,610 | $49,681 | $49,004 |
| OR | $67,820 | $51,157 | $48,851 |
| FL | $58,550 | $49,225 | $47,582 |
| TN | $51,460 | $43,528 | $47,050 |
| MT | $51,650 | $42,010 | $46,551 |
| AR | $47,790 | $39,270 | $45,394 |
| CA | $63,010 | $50,835 | $45,155 |
Sources and assumptions
- Treat the numbers for social workers, all other as a midpoint, not a promise. The national middle is $71,900, which means half of everyone doing this work earns less than that. Where you land depends on how long you have done it, who you do it for, and which city you do it in.
- One filer, no dependants, nothing paid into a pension before tax — that is the household behind every take-home figure for social workers, all other. It is the simplest case on purpose, so the states can be compared against each other rather than against each other's family circumstances. City income taxes are not counted. On that household, Nevada keeps the most at $94,537.
- One price figure per state stands behind the real-terms numbers for social workers, all other. Inside any state, a big city costs far more than a small town, so this is a fair way to compare states with each other and a poor way to price a specific move. The wage figures and the price figures are also from different years. At the bottom of the range sits California, on $45,155.
- These are distribution medians for social workers, all other, with a national value of $71,900. They describe a midpoint rather than an expected offer, and the within-occupation spread — visible in the tenth and ninetieth percentile figures — is wide enough that a state-level median is a weak predictor for any individual worker.
- The household modeled for social workers, all other is a single filer, standard deduction, no dependants, no pre-tax contributions. Holding the household constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful; it also means the absolute figures overstate liability for most real filers. On that basis Nevada retains the most, $94,537. Municipal and school-district income taxes are not included in any state.
- Real-terms results for social workers, all other rest on statewide regional price parities, which average over intra-state variation that is itself larger than much of the interstate variation. They support comparison between states and not the pricing of an individual relocation; California anchors the distribution at $45,155. Wage and price series are published on separate cycles and therefore carry different reference periods.