Travel Agents in Missouri

A bright independent shop with household goods on wooden shelves.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$37,508

after federal, FICA and Missouri tax

Tax takes

$7,952

17.5% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$40,875

Missouri costs less 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

$45,460

Kept after tax

$37,508

Worth in national money

$40,875

State rank

39

of 49 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for travel agents is on the low side in Missouri. The middle earner gets $45,460. That is 39 of 49 states, and about 9.37% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
  • Middle of the local pack. Of 488 occupations Missouri reports figures for, this is number 353.
  • Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $45,460 you keep $37,508 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $40,875 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $47,460, since top earners drag the number up.
  • For travel agents, Missouri sits in the lower band at $45,460, ranking 39 of 49 and trailing the national median by about 9.37%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
  • In Missouri's occupational distribution, travel agents sits at 353 of 488 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
  • Retained pay in Missouri is $37,508 after the full tax stack, from $45,460. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $40,875 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $47,460 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

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: Travel Agents

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$28,600
Half earn under$45,460
Top tenth earn over$64,760
This salary$45,460

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
+$1,199take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Missouri$37,508
Take-home in Texas$38,707
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,043

The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.

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
$0$46,721
$46,721in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$43,967
Raise you would need+$1,261
Prices in Texas97 vs 92

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $45,460 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $28,600 and the ninetieth is $64,760 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Missouri's $37,508, worked from $45,460. 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 353 of 488.
  • Two cautions on $40,875, the adjusted value of that $45,460 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Missouri. 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 353 of 488 locally.
  • The Missouri median of $45,460 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $28,600 to $64,760. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
  • The Missouri take-home of $37,508, on $45,460 for work ranking 353 of 488 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 353 of 488 in the state.
  • This $40,875 adjusted figure, worked from $45,460, 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 353 of 488 in the state. The occupation ranks 353 of 488 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $47,460, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

Why is the pay range for this job so wide?

The label is broader than the work. From $28,600 at the bottom tenth to $64,760 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $40,875.

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; Missouri then takes its own share, leaving $37,508.

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 49 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 Missouri is $47,460. 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 ($28,600) and the ninetieth ($64,760) 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.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Missouri's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $40,875 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.

What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?

Take-home of $37,508 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.