Camera Operators, Television, Video, and Film in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,768
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$8,462
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,933
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$44,230
Kept after tax
$35,768
Worth in national money
$32,933
State rank
43
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Hawaii pays this job a middle wage of $44,230, 43 of 46 states and about 41.02% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Hawaii this is lower-paid work. Of 437 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 379. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $44,230, tax leaves $35,768 — and because Hawaii is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $32,933 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $48,830, since top earners drag the number up.
- Hawaii's $44,230 median for camera operators, television, video, and film places it 43 of 46 states, about 41.02% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Hawaii reports, camera operators, television, video, and film ranks 379 of 437, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- After tax, $35,768 remains from the Hawaii median of $44,230 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $32,933 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $48,830 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Camera Operators, Television, Video, and Film
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,880 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,230 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,600 |
| This salary | $44,230 |
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 Hawaii | $35,768 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,719 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,883 |
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 | $41,802 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,114 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of camera operators, television, video, and film in Hawaii earn under $44,230 and half over. The published range runs $30,880 at the tenth percentile to $76,600 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $35,768 take-home in Hawaii comes from $44,230. 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 379 of 437.
- Two cautions on $32,933, the adjusted value of that $44,230 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Hawaii. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 379 of 437 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for camera operators, television, video, and film in Hawaii, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $30,880 to $76,600; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $35,768, from $44,230, assumes a single Hawaii 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 379 of 437 locally, and the state ranks 43 of 46 for it.
- This $32,933 adjusted figure, worked from $44,230, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 379 of 437 in the state. The occupation ranks 379 of 437 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $48,830, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $30,880 and the top tenth $76,600 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Hawaii costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $32,933 rather than its face figure.
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; Hawaii then takes its own share, leaving $35,768.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 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 Hawaii is $48,830. 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 ($30,880) and the ninetieth ($76,600) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $32,933 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $35,768 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.