Transportation Security Screeners in Hawaii

A protective helmet, radio and safety vest at an emergency response station.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$54,299

after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax

Tax takes

$15,861

22.6% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$49,995

Hawaii costs more than average

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

$70,160

Kept after tax

$54,299

Worth in national money

$49,995

State rank

11

of 45 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • This is a good state for the work. Hawaii pays this job a middle wage of $70,160, ranking 11 of 45 states and sitting about 5.08% above the national middle.
  • Against other work in Hawaii, this sits in the middle: 183 of 437 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
  • Hawaii is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $70,160 the take-home is $54,299; in national-average money that behaves like $49,995. The average lands at $67,720, below the middle of the range.
  • Hawaii's median for transportation security screeners is $70,160, about 5.08% above the national figure and 11 of 45 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
  • Transportation security screeners ranks 183 of 437 occupations in Hawaii by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
  • Take-home for transportation security screeners in Hawaii, on $70,160, is $54,299; deflated by the state's price level, $49,995. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $67,720 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.

Compare this career across states

Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.

Pay band: Transportation Security Screeners

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$57,180
Half earn under$70,160
Top tenth earn over$77,190
This salary$70,160

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

Compare with
+$3,889take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Hawaii$54,299
Take-home in Texas$58,188
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$9,885

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

Moving to
$0now · $70,160$57,750
$57,750in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$64,864
You could take a cut of−$12,410
Prices in Texas97 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 $70,160. The published range is $57,180 up to $77,190, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Hawaii's $54,299, worked from $70,160. 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 183 of 437.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $49,995 uses one figure for the whole of Hawaii. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 437 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 183.
  • Reported values are medians; for transportation security screeners in Hawaii the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $57,180 to $77,190. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • The Hawaii take-home of $54,299, on $70,160 for work ranking 183 of 437 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 183 of 437 in the state.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $49,995, worked from $70,160, 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 Hawaii address, on work sitting at 183 of 437 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $67,720 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $57,180 at the tenth percentile, $77,190 at the ninetieth.

Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?

Not on its own. Prices in Hawaii run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $49,995 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.

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; Hawaii then takes its own share, leaving $54,299.

Why is this job missing from some states?

Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 45 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.

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 $67,720. 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 ($57,180 to $77,190) 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 $49,995 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 $54,299 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.