Architectural and Civil Drafters in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,975
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$11,965
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,461
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$61,940
Kept after tax
$49,975
Worth in national money
$54,461
State rank
37
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Missouri. The middle earner gets $61,940. That is 37 of 50 states, and about 6.36% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Missouri, this sits in the middle: 186 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Missouri is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $61,940 the take-home is $49,975; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $54,461 would nationally. The average comes to $66,460, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For architectural and civil drafters, Missouri sits in the lower band at $61,940, ranking 37 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 6.36%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Architectural and civil drafters ranks 186 of 488 occupations in Missouri by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Post-tax income for architectural and civil drafters in Missouri, on $61,940, is $49,975 — equivalent to $54,461 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $66,460 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Architectural and Civil Drafters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,760 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $90,200 |
| This salary | $61,940 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Missouri | $49,975 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,949 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,002 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $59,483 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,212 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,940 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $44,760 and the ninetieth is $90,200 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $49,975 take-home in Missouri comes from $61,940. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 186 of 488.
- One number stands for prices across all of Missouri, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $54,461, the adjusted value of that $61,940 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 186 of 488 in the state.
- The Missouri median of $61,940 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $44,760 to $90,200. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $49,975, from $61,940, assumes a single Missouri filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 186 of 488 locally, and the state ranks 37 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Missouri, so $54,461 — the adjusted value of that $61,940 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 186 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $66,460 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $44,760, the highest tenth $90,200, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Missouri is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $54,461 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Missouri then takes its own share, leaving $49,975.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Missouri is $66,460. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($44,760) and the ninetieth ($90,200) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $54,461 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $49,975 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.