What Office Clerks, General earn in Washtenaw County, MI
The median pay for Office Clerks, General in Washtenaw County, MI is $38,350 per year, which works out to $18.44 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the Ann Arbor, MI metropolitan area, the labor market that Washtenaw County, MI belongs to. Half of the workers in this occupation earn more than the median and half earn less, which makes it a sturdier yardstick than an average that a few very high earners can pull upward.
The mean wage is $45,310, which is 18.1% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 5,460 people working in this occupation across the Ann Arbor, MI metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Washtenaw County, MI has roughly 369,822 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Office Clerks, General in the Ann Arbor, MI metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $33,840 a year ($16.27 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $66,560 or more ($32.00 an hour). That is a gap of $32,720 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $34,520 at the 25th percentile and $52,910 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.0 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Office Clerks, General in Washtenaw County, MI is $18.44. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $38,350, and the same salary is $3,196 a month before taxes or about $1,475 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $15.17 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Office Clerks, General
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Office Clerks, General this way: "Perform duties too varied and diverse to be classified in any specific office clerical occupation, requiring knowledge of office systems and procedures. Clerical duties may be assigned in accordance with the office procedures of individual establishments and may include a combination of answering telephones, bookkeeping, typing or word processing, office machine operation, and filing."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Communicate with customers, employees, and other individuals to answer questions, disseminate or explain information, take orders, and address complaints"; "Answer telephones, direct calls, and take messages"; "Compile, copy, sort, and file records of office activities, business transactions, and other activities"; "Operate office machines, such as photocopiers and scanners, facsimile machines, voice mail systems, and personal computers".
Job outlook for Office Clerks, General
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to shrink from 2,600,000 jobs in 2025 to 2,443,700 in 2035, a change of -6%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 249,000 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 9.6% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $45,010 for this occupation; the Washtenaw County, MI median of $38,350 is 14.8% below it.
How pay in Washtenaw County, MI compares
Compared with the Michigan average
The local median of $38,350 sits below the Michigan employment-weighted average of $44,314. The shortfall is $5,964 a year, or 13.5%, so Washtenaw County, MI is a lower-paying market for this job than the state as a whole. Within Michigan, the highest median we track for this job is $45,830 in Ingham County, MI.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Office Clerks, General is $44,586 across the contiguous United States. At $38,350, Washtenaw County, MI pays $6,236 less, which is 14.0% 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 Washtenaw County, MI
Among the 390 occupations with published wages in Washtenaw County, MI, Office Clerks, General ranks number 339 by median pay, ahead of about 13% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Registered Nurses at $103,450 a year, which is $65,100 more than the median for Office Clerks, General.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $38,350 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $6,791 a year, which leaves $31,559, or $2,630 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $18 goes to taxes and $82 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 17.7%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $22,600. 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 $2,474, an effective 6.4% 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 $2,378 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $556. FICA totals $2,934, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Michigan
Michigan income tax on this salary is $1,383 a year, or 3.6% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 56% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $115 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 Washtenaw County, MI
IRS Statistics of Income data for Washtenaw County, MI show an average adjusted gross income of $113,042 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 15.7% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.7%, compared with the 6.4% 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 Washtenaw County, MI
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Washtenaw County, MI: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $31,559 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Washtenaw County, MI is $1,503 a month, or $18,036 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,804 a month. For Office Clerks, General, a one-bedroom absorbs 57.1% of take-home pay and 47.0% 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 9.0% of gross pay for Office Clerks, General in Washtenaw County, MI. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Michigan residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $2,039 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $416, for $2,455 in total. Gasoline in Michigan averages $3.10 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,436.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $25,363 a year, 80% of take-home pay. That leaves $6,196 a year, or $516 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 16.2% of gross pay, a workable but modest cushion.
Local housing and commute data for Washtenaw County, MI
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Washtenaw County, MI: 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 Washtenaw County, MI, set beside the Michigan and national medians.
Property taxes in Washtenaw County, MI
Homeowners in Washtenaw County, MI pay a median of $5,678 a year in real estate taxes, 96% above the Michigan median of $2,904 and 82% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $374,100, the median tax bill is 1.52% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Office Clerks, General median of $38,350, a tax bill of that size would equal 14.8% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Washtenaw County, MI
Renters in Washtenaw County, MI pay a median gross rent of $1,463 a month in the Census survey, 30% above the Michigan median of $1,129. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,503 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 $374,100, 62% above the Michigan median of $231,600. Median household income is $89,180, 22% above the Michigan median of $72,875, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 20.2% of that income.
Commuting in Washtenaw County, MI
Workers in Washtenaw County, MI who travel to a workplace spend an average of 23.5 minutes each way, 3% below the Michigan average of 24.2. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 3.9 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 22.6% of workers in Washtenaw County, MI work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Office Clerks, General afford to live in Washtenaw County, MI?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $38,350 that ceiling is $959 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,503 is $544 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $28.90 an hour; the median for Office Clerks, General is $18.44, which is 36% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $15.17 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 22.9 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,804 a month means $902 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $7,212 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $13,408.
How fast you can save
At $516 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 20 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 40 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Office Clerks, General pay in Washtenaw County, MI
What is the hourly wage for Office Clerks, General in Washtenaw County, MI?
The median is $18.44 per hour, based on $38,350 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $16.27 at the 10th percentile to $32.00 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Office Clerks, General in Washtenaw County, MI?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $38,350 becomes $31,559 a year. That is $2,630 a month, $1,214 every two weeks or $607 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Office Clerks, General in Washtenaw County, MI?
Total taxes are $6,791 a year, an effective rate of 17.7%: $2,474 federal income tax, $2,934 FICA and $1,383 Michigan income tax.
Is pay for Office Clerks, General in Washtenaw County, MI above the Michigan average?
No. The local median of $38,350 is -13.5% versus the Michigan average of $44,314, a difference of $5,964 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Office Clerks, General salary in Washtenaw County, MI?
A one-bedroom costs $1,503 a month against take-home pay of $2,630, which is 57.1% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $959 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Office Clerks, General in Washtenaw County, MI?
About $516 a month ($6,196 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $25,363 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Washtenaw County, MI at the 30% guideline?
$28.90 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $18,036 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Office Clerks, General is $18.44.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Ann Arbor, MI 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 Michigan 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.