Budget Analysts in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$65,507
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$18,733
22.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$67,186
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$84,240
Kept after tax
$65,507
Worth in national money
$67,186
State rank
30
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Pennsylvania pays budget analysts around $84,240 at the midpoint, 30 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Pennsylvania. It ranks 100 out of 492 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $84,240, tax leaves $65,507, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $67,186 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $88,380, since top earners drag the number up.
- For budget analysts the Pennsylvania median is $84,240, ranking 30 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Pennsylvania, budget analysts ranks 100 of 492 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for budget analysts — median $84,240 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $65,507 retained, $67,186 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $88,380 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Budget Analysts
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $55,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $84,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $124,590 |
| This salary | $84,240 |
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 Pennsylvania | $65,507 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $68,093 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,886 |
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 | $80,564 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,987 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $84,240 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $55,220 and the ninetieth is $124,590 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Pennsylvania the take-home figure of $65,507, from $84,240, 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 100 of 492 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Pennsylvania, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $67,186, the adjusted value of that $84,240 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 100 of 492 in the state.
- The Pennsylvania median of $84,240 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $55,220 to $124,590. 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 Pennsylvania is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $65,507 from $84,240. 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 100 of 492 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Pennsylvania, so $67,186 — the adjusted value of that $84,240 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 100 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $88,380, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $55,220, the highest tenth $124,590, 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 $67,186.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Pennsylvania adds its own income tax on top — which is why $65,507 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Pennsylvania is $88,380. 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 ($55,220) and the ninetieth ($124,590) 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?
Pennsylvania'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 $67,186 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 $65,507 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.