What Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand earn in Warren County, IA
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $46,370: the median annual pay for Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand in Warren County, IA. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $22.29 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $45,160, which is 2.6% below the median, which suggests many workers sit near the top of the pay scale. The survey counts about 7,000 people working in this occupation across the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Warren County, IA has roughly 54,409 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand in the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $33,580 a year ($16.14 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $55,770 or more ($26.81 an hour). That is a gap of $22,190 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $38,010 at the 25th percentile and $49,980 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: $22.29 an hour or $46,370 a year at the median for Warren County, IA. Before any deductions, that is $3,864 a month, $1,783 every two weeks and $892 each week. After taxes the same job pays $18.11 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand this way: "Manually move freight, stock, luggage, or other materials, or perform other general labor. Includes all manual laborers not elsewhere classified."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Read work orders or receive oral instructions to determine work assignments or material or equipment needs"; "Move freight, stock, or other materials to and from storage or production areas, loading docks, delivery vehicles, ships, or containers, by hand or using trucks, tractors, or other equipment"; "Maintain equipment storage areas to ensure that inventory is protected".
Job outlook for Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 2,940,300 jobs in 2025 to 2,991,900 in 2035, a change of +1.8%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 340,500 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 11.6% 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 $40,240 for this occupation; the Warren County, IA median of $46,370 is 15.2% above it.
How pay in Warren County, IA compares
Compared with the Iowa average
A worker in this occupation in Warren County, IA earns $2,552 more than the Iowa average of $43,818, a premium of 5.8%. Over a year that premium is worth $2,552 before tax and roughly $2,073 after tax. Within Iowa, Warren County, IA already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand is $41,056 across the contiguous United States. At $46,370, Warren County, IA pays $5,314 more, which is 12.9% above 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 Warren County, IA
Among the 452 occupations with published wages in Warren County, IA, Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand ranks number 345 by median pay, ahead of about 24% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $98,780 a year, which is $52,410 more than the median for Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand.
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 Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand earning the Warren County, IA median of $46,370, they add up to $8,705. The result is $37,665 of take-home pay a year ($3,139 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $19 goes to taxes and $81 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 18.8%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $30,620. 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 $3,436, an effective 7.4% 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 $2,875 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $672. FICA totals $3,547, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Iowa
Iowa income tax on this salary is $1,722 a year, or 3.7% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 50% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $144 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 Warren County, IA
IRS Statistics of Income data for Warren County, IA show an average adjusted gross income of $98,366 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 12.4% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.2%, compared with the 7.4% 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 Warren County, IA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Warren County, IA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $37,665 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Warren County, IA, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,145 a month ($13,740 a year), and at $1,360 for two bedrooms. For Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand, a one-bedroom absorbs 36.5% of take-home pay and 29.6% 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 7.4% of gross pay for Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand in Warren 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 $20,432 a year in Warren County, IA. Subtract that from $37,665 of take-home pay and $17,233 remains, which is $1,436 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 37.2% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Warren County, IA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Warren 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 Warren County, IA, set beside the Iowa and national medians.
Property taxes in Warren County, IA
Homeowners in Warren County, IA pay a median of $3,865 a year in real estate taxes, 33% above the Iowa median of $2,897 and 24% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $269,600, the median tax bill is 1.43% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand median of $46,370, a tax bill of that size would equal 8.3% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Warren County, IA
Renters in Warren County, IA pay a median gross rent of $973 a month in the Census survey, in line with the Iowa median of $972. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,145 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 $269,600, 30% above the Iowa median of $208,000. Median household income is $94,588, 26% above the Iowa median of $75,059, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 14.5% of that income.
Commuting in Warren County, IA
Workers in Warren County, IA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 24.1 minutes each way, 22% above the Iowa average of 19.8. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.0 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 15.3% of workers in Warren County, IA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand afford to live in Warren 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 $46,370 that ceiling is $1,159 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,145 is $14 under it, so rent fits the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $22.02 an hour; the median for Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand is $22.29, which is 1% above that mark. Another way to see it: at $18.11 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 14.6 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,360 a month means $680 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $5,580 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $22,813.
How fast you can save
At $1,436 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 7 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 14 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand pay in Warren County, IA
How much do Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand make per hour in Warren County, IA?
The median is $22.29 per hour, based on $46,370 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $16.14 at the 10th percentile to $26.81 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand take home after taxes in Warren County, IA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $46,370 becomes $37,665 a year. That is $3,139 a month, $1,449 every two weeks or $724 a week.
How much tax do Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand pay in Warren County, IA?
Total taxes are $8,705 a year, an effective rate of 18.8%: $3,436 federal income tax, $3,547 FICA and $1,722 Iowa income tax.
Do Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand earn more in Warren County, IA than elsewhere in Iowa?
Yes. The local median of $46,370 is +5.8% versus the Iowa average of $43,818, a difference of $2,552 a year.
Can Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand afford a one-bedroom apartment in Warren County, IA?
A one-bedroom costs $1,145 a month against take-home pay of $3,139, which is 36.5% of take-home pay. That meets the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,159 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand in Warren County, IA?
About $1,436 a month ($17,233 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $20,432 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Warren County, IA at the 30% guideline?
$22.02 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $13,740 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand is $22.29.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA 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 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.