What Stockers and Order Fillers earn in Worcester County, MA
According to the latest federal wage data for the Worcester, MA metropolitan area, the median pay for Stockers and Order Fillers in Worcester County, MA is $37,250 a year, or $17.91 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $30,416 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Worcester County, MA.
The mean wage is $39,620, which is 6.4% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 6,360 people working in this occupation across the Worcester, MA metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Worcester County, MA has roughly 867,788 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 Worcester, MA metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $32,840 a year ($15.79 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $49,910 or more ($24.00 an hour). That is a gap of $17,070 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $35,240 at the 25th percentile and $42,740 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.5 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: $17.91 an hour or $37,250 a year at the median for Worcester County, MA. Before any deductions, that is $3,104 a month, $1,433 every two weeks and $716 each week. After taxes the same job pays $14.62 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 Worcester County, MA median of $37,250 is 0.2% below it.
How pay in Worcester County, MA compares
Compared with the Massachusetts average
Pay for Stockers and Order Fillers in Worcester County, MA is in line with the statewide figure: $37,250 locally against an employment-weighted Massachusetts average of $37,449, a difference of only $199 (0.5%). Within Massachusetts, the highest median we track for this job is $37,700 in Middlesex County, MA.
Compared with the national average
Nationally, Stockers and Order Fillers earn an employment-weighted average of $37,561 across the contiguous United States, so $37,250 in Worcester County, MA is essentially average. 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 Worcester County, MA
Among the 440 occupations with published wages in Worcester County, MA, Stockers and Order Fillers ranks number 414 by median pay, ahead of about 6% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $111,900 a year, which is $74,650 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 Worcester County, MA median of $37,250, they add up to $6,834. The result is $30,416 of take-home pay a year ($2,535 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 18.4%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $21,500. 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 $2,342, an effective 6.3% 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 $2,310 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $540. FICA totals $2,850, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Massachusetts
Massachusetts income tax on this salary is $1,643 a year, or 4.4% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 70% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $137 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 Worcester County, MA
IRS Statistics of Income data for Worcester County, MA show an average adjusted gross income of $94,976 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 13.8% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.4%, compared with the 6.3% 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 Worcester County, MA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Worcester County, MA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $30,416 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Worcester County, MA, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,611 a month ($19,332 a year), and at $2,057 for two bedrooms. For Stockers and Order Fillers, a one-bedroom absorbs 63.6% of take-home pay and 51.9% 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 9.2% of gross pay for Stockers and Order Fillers in Worcester County, MA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Massachusetts residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $3,101 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $867, for $3,968 in total. Gasoline in Massachusetts averages $3.33 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,542.
What is left over
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $28,277 a year in Worcester County, MA. Subtract that from $30,416 of take-home pay and $2,139 remains, which is $178 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 5.7% of gross pay, a thin cushion that one unexpected expense could erase.
Local housing and commute data for Worcester County, MA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Worcester County, MA: 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 Worcester County, MA, set beside the Massachusetts and national medians.
Property taxes in Worcester County, MA
Homeowners in Worcester County, MA pay a median of $5,438 a year in real estate taxes, 9% below the Massachusetts median of $5,992 and 74% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $423,700, the median tax bill is 1.28% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Stockers and Order Fillers median of $37,250, a tax bill of that size would equal 14.6% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Worcester County, MA
Renters in Worcester County, MA pay a median gross rent of $1,426 a month in the Census survey, 19% below the Massachusetts median of $1,762. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,611 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 $423,700, 25% below the Massachusetts median of $562,100. Median household income is $95,939, 8% below the Massachusetts median of $103,960, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 20.2% of that income.
Commuting in Worcester County, MA
Workers in Worcester County, MA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 29.2 minutes each way, in line with the Massachusetts average of 29.1. 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. 15.6% of workers in Worcester County, MA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Stockers and Order Fillers afford to live in Worcester County, MA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $37,250 that ceiling is $931 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,611 is $680 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $30.98 an hour; the median for Stockers and Order Fillers is $17.91, which is 42% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $14.62 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 25.4 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,057 a month means $1,029 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,990 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $9,129.
How fast you can save
At $178 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 57 months (4.8 years). Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 114 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Stockers and Order Fillers pay in Worcester County, MA
How much do Stockers and Order Fillers make per hour in Worcester County, MA?
The median is $17.91 per hour, based on $37,250 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $15.79 at the 10th percentile to $24.00 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Stockers and Order Fillers take home after taxes in Worcester County, MA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $37,250 becomes $30,416 a year. That is $2,535 a month, $1,170 every two weeks or $585 a week.
How much tax do Stockers and Order Fillers pay in Worcester County, MA?
Total taxes are $6,834 a year, an effective rate of 18.4%: $2,342 federal income tax, $2,850 FICA and $1,643 Massachusetts income tax.
Do Stockers and Order Fillers earn more in Worcester County, MA than elsewhere in Massachusetts?
It is about the same. The local median of $37,250 is within 0.5% of the Massachusetts average of $37,449.
Can Stockers and Order Fillers afford a one-bedroom apartment in Worcester County, MA?
A one-bedroom costs $1,611 a month against take-home pay of $2,535, which is 63.6% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $931 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Stockers and Order Fillers in Worcester County, MA?
About $178 a month ($2,139 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $28,277 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Worcester County, MA at the 30% guideline?
$30.98 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $19,332 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Stockers and Order Fillers is $17.91.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Worcester, MA 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 Massachusetts 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.