Commercial and Industrial Designers Salary

Yes — at the median salary of $81K, rent takes 25.1% of take-home pay. A 2-bedroom at the HUD Fair Market Rent runs $1,284/month. That stays under the 30% guideline most financial planners use.

The 10th-percentile wage — what new commercial and industrial designers typically earn — is $49K/year. Take-home on that works out to about $2,930/month. At HUD’s $1,284/month FMR, rent would take 44% of that take-home — above the 30% guideline, so a 1-bedroom or shared housing is likely necessary starting out.

Pay here is roughly in line with the national average — $81K locally vs. $84K nationally, a 4% difference.

North Carolina pays $81K median vs. the U.S. average of $84K — that’s -4%. After adjusting for local cost of living (RPP 92.66), the purchasing-power equivalent is $87K — still ahead of the national median.

The median is $80,620 a year, that works out to about $39 an hour. But the range is wide: entry-level workers start around $48,830, and experienced commercial and industrial designers can clear $134,040. These are BLS numbers, based on employer-reported data, not self-reported surveys.

On that salary, you'd take home roughly $5,123/month after taxes. A 2-bedroom here rents for about $1,284/month, which eats 25.1% of your paycheck. That's under the 30% guideline most financial planners use, so the numbers work.

North Carolina has a Regional Price Parity of 92.66 (100 is the national average). That's below average, your money stretches further here than the raw salary number suggests. After cost-of-living adjustment, the median commercial and industrial designers salary is worth about $87,006 in national-average purchasing power.

The table above ranks every state by median pay for this role. Keep in mind that the highest-paying states tend to have the highest costs of living, so the top salary doesn't always mean the most money in your pocket.