Travel Agents in North Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$45,588
after federal, FICA and North Carolina tax
Tax takes
$10,592
18.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,426
North Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Carolina — 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
$56,180
Kept after tax
$45,588
Worth in national money
$48,426
State rank
12
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. North Carolina pays travel agents a middle wage of $56,180, ranking 12 of 49 states and sitting about 12% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Travel agents ranks 244 among 489 occupations North Carolina publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $56,180 you keep $45,588 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $48,426 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $57,940, since top earners drag the number up.
- North Carolina's median for travel agents is $56,180, about 12% above the national figure and 12 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 244 of 489 in North Carolina places travel agents 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.
- Retained pay in North Carolina is $45,588 after the full tax stack, from $56,180. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $48,426 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $57,940 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Travel Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,170 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $56,180 |
| Top tenth earn over | $87,540 |
| This salary | $56,180 |
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 North Carolina | $45,588 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $47,321 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$270 |
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 | $54,023 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$327 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in North Carolina earn less than $56,180. The published range is $35,170 up to $87,540, 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 North Carolina's $45,588, worked from $56,180. 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 244 of 489.
- Two cautions on $48,426, the adjusted value of that $56,180 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of North Carolina. 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 244 of 489 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for travel agents in North Carolina the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $35,170 to $87,540. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The North Carolina take-home of $45,588, on $56,180 for work ranking 244 of 489 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 244 of 489 in the state.
- This $48,426 adjusted figure, worked from $56,180, 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 244 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 244 of 489 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 $57,940, 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 $35,170 and the top tenth $87,540 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in North Carolina sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $48,426 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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; North Carolina then takes its own share, leaving $45,588.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 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 North Carolina is $57,940. 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 ($35,170) and the ninetieth ($87,540) 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?
North Carolina'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 $48,426 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 $45,588 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Carolina 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.