Architectural and Civil Drafters in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,463
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$12,467
19.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,205
Wisconsin costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wisconsin — 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
$62,930
Kept after tax
$50,463
Worth in national money
$54,205
State rank
31
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Wisconsin is 31 of 50 states for this job, with a middle wage of $62,930. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Wisconsin, this sits in the middle: 214 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Wisconsin is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $62,930 the take-home is $50,463; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $54,205 would nationally. The average comes to $68,880, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Wisconsin ranks 31 of 50 for architectural and civil drafters at $62,930. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Architectural and civil drafters ranks 214 of 491 occupations in Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin, on $62,930, is $50,463 — equivalent to $54,205 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 $68,880 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Architectural and Civil Drafters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,840 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,930 |
| Top tenth earn over | $96,830 |
| This salary | $62,930 |
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 Wisconsin | $50,463 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,744 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$73 |
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 | $60,091 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$88 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $62,930 as a midpoint for Wisconsin, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,840 and the ninetieth is $96,830 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Wisconsin the take-home figure of $50,463, from $62,930, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 214 of 491 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $54,205 uses one figure for the whole of Wisconsin. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 214.
- The Wisconsin median of $62,930 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,840 to $96,830. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Wisconsin is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $50,463 from $62,930. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 214 of 491 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $54,205, worked from $62,930, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Wisconsin address, on work sitting at 214 of 491 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 $68,880 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 $48,840, the highest tenth $96,830, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $54,205.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Wisconsin's own levy, $50,463 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 Wisconsin is $68,880. 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 ($48,840) and the ninetieth ($96,830) 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?
Wisconsin'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 $54,205 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 $50,463 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Wisconsin 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.