Tax Preparers in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$28,789
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$5,931
17.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,507
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
$34,720
Kept after tax
$28,789
Worth in national money
$26,507
State rank
47
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Hawaii pays tax preparers a middle wage of $34,720, 47 of 48 states and about 36.78% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Hawaii this is lower-paid work. Of 437 occupations the state publishes figures for, tax preparers ranks 431. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $34,720 the take-home is $28,789. But Hawaii costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $26,507 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is higher, $40,820, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Hawaii's $34,720 median for tax preparers places it 47 of 48 states, about 36.78% 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 Hawaii reports, tax preparers ranks 431 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.
- Retained pay after federal, FICA and Hawaii income tax is $28,789 for tax preparers, from $34,720. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $26,507. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $40,820 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Tax Preparers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,120 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $34,720 |
| Top tenth earn over | $69,270 |
| This salary | $34,720 |
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 Hawaii | $28,789 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,078 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,445 |
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 | $33,116 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,376 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Hawaii earn less than $34,720. The published range is $29,120 up to $69,270, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Hawaii the take-home figure of $28,789, from $34,720, 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 431 of 437 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $26,507, the adjusted value of that $34,720 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 431 of 437 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for tax preparers in Hawaii the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $29,120 to $69,270. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Hawaii is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $28,789 from $34,720. 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 431 of 437 locally.
- This $26,507 adjusted figure, worked from $34,720, 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 431 of 437 in the state. The occupation ranks 431 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 $40,820, 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 $29,120 and the top tenth $69,270 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Hawaii costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $26,507 rather than its face figure.
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, $28,789 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 Hawaii is $40,820. 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 ($29,120) and the ninetieth ($69,270) 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?
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 $26,507 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 $28,789 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.
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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.