What Stockers and Order Fillers earn in Shelby County, AL
According to the latest federal wage data for the Birmingham, AL metropolitan area, the median pay for Stockers and Order Fillers in Shelby County, AL is $35,660 a year, or $17.14 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $29,371 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Shelby County, AL.
The mean wage is $38,030, which is 6.6% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 10,890 people working in this occupation across the Birmingham, AL metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Shelby County, AL has roughly 230,211 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Stockers and Order Fillers in the Birmingham, AL metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $29,580 a year ($14.22 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $48,810 or more ($23.47 an hour). That is a gap of $19,230 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $31,390 at the 25th percentile and $44,400 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.7 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $17.14 an hour or $35,660 a year at the median for Shelby County, AL. Before any deductions, that is $2,972 a month, $1,372 every two weeks and $686 each week. After taxes the same job pays $14.12 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Stockers and Order Fillers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Stockers and Order Fillers this way: "Receive, store, and issue merchandise, materials, equipment, and other items from stockroom, warehouse, or storage yard to fill shelves, racks, tables, or customers' orders. May operate power equipment to fill orders. May mark prices on merchandise and set up sales displays."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Complete order receipts"; "Obtain merchandise from bins or shelves"; "Read orders to ascertain catalog numbers, sizes, colors, and quantities of merchandise"; "Pack and unpack items to be stocked on shelves in stockrooms, warehouses, or storage yards".
Job outlook for Stockers and Order Fillers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 2,804,300 jobs in 2025 to 3,055,000 in 2035, a change of +8.9%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 430,700 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 15.4% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: no formal educational credential. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $37,330 for this occupation; the Shelby County, AL median of $35,660 is 4.5% below it.
How pay in Shelby County, AL compares
Compared with the Alabama average
A worker in this occupation in Shelby County, AL earns $1,691 more than the Alabama average of $33,969, a premium of 5.0%. Over a year that premium is worth $1,691 before tax and roughly $1,393 after tax. Within Alabama, Shelby County, AL already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Stockers and Order Fillers is $37,561 across the contiguous United States. At $35,660, Shelby County, AL pays $1,901 less, which is 5.1% below that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Shelby County, AL
Among the 451 occupations with published wages in Shelby County, AL, Stockers and Order Fillers ranks number 397 by median pay, ahead of about 12% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $123,560 a year, which is $87,900 more than the median for Stockers and Order Fillers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For Stockers and Order Fillers earning the Shelby County, AL median of $35,660, they add up to $6,289. The result is $29,371 of take-home pay a year ($2,448 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $18 goes to taxes and $82 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 17.6%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $19,910. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $2,151, an effective 6.0% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $2,211 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $517. FICA totals $2,728, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Alabama
Alabama income tax on this salary is $1,410 a year, or 4.0% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 66% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $118 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Shelby County, AL
IRS Statistics of Income data for Shelby County, AL show an average adjusted gross income of $105,725 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 14.1% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.3%, compared with the 6.0% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Shelby County, AL
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Shelby County, AL: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $29,371 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Shelby County, AL, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,263 a month ($15,156 a year), and at $1,375 for two bedrooms. For Stockers and Order Fillers, a one-bedroom absorbs 51.6% of take-home pay and 42.5% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 9.6% of gross pay for Stockers and Order Fillers in Shelby County, AL. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Alabama residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,604 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $737, for $2,341 in total. Gasoline in Alabama averages $2.89 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,338.
What is left over
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $22,270 a year in Shelby County, AL. Subtract that from $29,371 of take-home pay and $7,101 remains, which is $592 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 19.9% of gross pay, a workable but modest cushion.
Local housing and commute data for Shelby County, AL
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Shelby County, AL: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Shelby County, AL, set beside the Alabama and national medians.
Property taxes in Shelby County, AL
Homeowners in Shelby County, AL pay a median of $1,423 a year in real estate taxes, 81% above the Alabama median of $788 and 54% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $326,100, the median tax bill is 0.44% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Stockers and Order Fillers median of $35,660, a tax bill of that size would equal 4.0% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Shelby County, AL
Renters in Shelby County, AL pay a median gross rent of $1,401 a month in the Census survey, 39% above the Alabama median of $1,007. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,263 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $326,100, 55% above the Alabama median of $209,900. Median household income is $97,961, 53% above the Alabama median of $63,999, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 15.5% of that income.
Commuting in Shelby County, AL
Workers in Shelby County, AL who travel to a workplace spend an average of 29.5 minutes each way, 16% above the Alabama average of 25.5. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.9 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 16.9% of workers in Shelby County, AL work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Stockers and Order Fillers afford to live in Shelby County, AL?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $35,660 that ceiling is $891 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,263 is $372 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $24.29 an hour; the median for Stockers and Order Fillers is $17.14, which is 29% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $14.12 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 20.6 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,375 a month means $688 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,906 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $14,007.
How fast you can save
At $592 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 17 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 34 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Stockers and Order Fillers pay in Shelby County, AL
How much do Stockers and Order Fillers make per hour in Shelby County, AL?
The median is $17.14 per hour, based on $35,660 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $14.22 at the 10th percentile to $23.47 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Stockers and Order Fillers take home after taxes in Shelby County, AL?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $35,660 becomes $29,371 a year. That is $2,448 a month, $1,130 every two weeks or $565 a week.
How much tax do Stockers and Order Fillers pay in Shelby County, AL?
Total taxes are $6,289 a year, an effective rate of 17.6%: $2,151 federal income tax, $2,728 FICA and $1,410 Alabama income tax.
Do Stockers and Order Fillers earn more in Shelby County, AL than elsewhere in Alabama?
Yes. The local median of $35,660 is +5.0% versus the Alabama average of $33,969, a difference of $1,691 a year.
Can Stockers and Order Fillers afford a one-bedroom apartment in Shelby County, AL?
A one-bedroom costs $1,263 a month against take-home pay of $2,448, which is 51.6% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $891 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Stockers and Order Fillers in Shelby County, AL?
About $592 a month ($7,101 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $22,270 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Shelby County, AL at the 30% guideline?
$24.29 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $15,156 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Stockers and Order Fillers is $17.14.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Birmingham, AL metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Alabama rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.