What Retail Salespersons earn in Davis County, IA
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $30,570: the median annual pay for Retail Salespersons in Davis County, IA. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $14.70 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Southeast Iowa nonmetropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $33,320, which is 9.0% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 4,690 people working in this occupation across the Southeast Iowa nonmetropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Davis County, IA has roughly 9,157 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Retail Salespersons in the Southeast Iowa nonmetropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $24,130 a year ($11.60 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $43,790 or more ($21.05 an hour). That is a gap of $19,660 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $27,990 at the 25th percentile and $35,760 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.8 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: $14.70 an hour or $30,570 a year at the median for Davis County, IA. Before any deductions, that is $2,548 a month, $1,176 every two weeks and $588 each week. After taxes the same job pays $12.29 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Retail Salespersons
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Retail Salespersons this way: "Sell merchandise, such as furniture, motor vehicles, appliances, or apparel to consumers."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Greet customers and ascertain what each customer wants or needs"; "Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices"; "Compute sales prices, total purchases, and receive and process cash or credit payment"; "Watch for and recognize security risks and thefts and know how to prevent or handle these situations".
Job outlook for Retail Salespersons
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to shrink from 3,998,100 jobs in 2025 to 3,984,100 in 2035, a change of -0.3%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 520,600 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 13.0% 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 $35,410 for this occupation; the Davis County, IA median of $30,570 is 13.7% below it.
How pay in Davis County, IA compares
Compared with the Iowa average
Pay in Davis County, IA runs $1,479 below the Iowa average of $32,049, a gap of 4.6%. A worker who moved to a better-paying part of Iowa would, on paper, gain that difference before taxes. Within Iowa, the highest median we track for this job is $33,430 in Polk County, IA.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Retail Salespersons is $34,080 across the contiguous United States. At $30,570, Davis County, IA pays $3,510 less, which is 10.3% 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 Davis County, IA
Among the 383 occupations with published wages in Davis County, IA, Retail Salespersons ranks number 359 by median pay, ahead of about 6% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers at $56,220 a year, which is $25,650 more than the median for Retail Salespersons.
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 Retail Salespersons earning the Davis County, IA median of $30,570, they add up to $5,000. The result is $25,570 of take-home pay a year ($2,131 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $16 goes to taxes and $84 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 16.4%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $14,820. 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 $1,540, an effective 5.0% 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 $1,895 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $443. FICA totals $2,339, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Iowa
Iowa income tax on this salary is $1,122 a year, or 3.7% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 73% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $93 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 Davis County, IA
IRS Statistics of Income data for Davis County, IA show an average adjusted gross income of $66,511 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 9.2% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 4.5%, compared with the 5.0% 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 Davis County, IA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Davis County, IA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $25,570 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Davis County, IA, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $815 a month ($9,780 a year), and at $1,066 for two bedrooms. For Retail Salespersons, a one-bedroom absorbs 38.3% of take-home pay and 32.0% 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 11.2% of gross pay for Retail Salespersons in Davis County, IA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Iowa residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,416 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $395, for $1,811 in total. Gasoline in Iowa averages $3.12 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,445.
What is left over
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $16,472 a year in Davis County, IA. Subtract that from $25,570 of take-home pay and $9,098 remains, which is $758 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 29.8% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Davis County, IA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Davis County, IA: 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 Davis County, IA, set beside the Iowa and national medians.
Property taxes in Davis County, IA
Homeowners in Davis County, IA pay a median of $2,269 a year in real estate taxes, 22% below the Iowa median of $2,897 and 27% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $161,900, the median tax bill is 1.40% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Retail Salespersons median of $30,570, a tax bill of that size would equal 7.4% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Davis County, IA
Renters in Davis County, IA pay a median gross rent of $868 a month in the Census survey, 11% below the Iowa median of $972. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $815 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 $161,900, 22% below the Iowa median of $208,000. Median household income is $77,194, 3% above the Iowa median of $75,059, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 12.7% of that income.
Commuting in Davis County, IA
Workers in Davis County, IA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 25.8 minutes each way, 30% above the Iowa average of 19.8. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.3 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 11.5% of workers in Davis County, IA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Retail Salespersons afford to live in Davis County, IA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $30,570 that ceiling is $764 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $815 is $51 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $15.67 an hour; the median for Retail Salespersons is $14.70, which is 6% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $12.29 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 15.3 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,066 a month means $533 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $3,384 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $12,482.
How fast you can save
At $758 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 14 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 28 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Retail Salespersons pay in Davis County, IA
How much do Retail Salespersons make per hour in Davis County, IA?
The median is $14.70 per hour, based on $30,570 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $11.60 at the 10th percentile to $21.05 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Retail Salespersons take home after taxes in Davis County, IA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $30,570 becomes $25,570 a year. That is $2,131 a month, $983 every two weeks or $492 a week.
How much tax do Retail Salespersons pay in Davis County, IA?
Total taxes are $5,000 a year, an effective rate of 16.4%: $1,540 federal income tax, $2,339 FICA and $1,122 Iowa income tax.
Do Retail Salespersons earn more in Davis County, IA than elsewhere in Iowa?
No. The local median of $30,570 is -4.6% versus the Iowa average of $32,049, a difference of $1,479 a year.
Can Retail Salespersons afford a one-bedroom apartment in Davis County, IA?
A one-bedroom costs $815 a month against take-home pay of $2,131, which is 38.2% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $764 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Retail Salespersons in Davis County, IA?
About $758 a month ($9,098 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $16,472 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Davis County, IA at the 30% guideline?
$15.67 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $9,780 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Retail Salespersons is $14.70.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Southeast Iowa nonmetropolitan 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 Iowa 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.