Camera Operators, Television, Video, and Film in Minnesota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,523
after federal, FICA and Minnesota tax
Tax takes
$9,897
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,191
Minnesota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Minnesota — 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
$51,420
Kept after tax
$41,523
Worth in national money
$42,191
State rank
33
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Minnesota. The middle earner gets $51,420. That is 33 of 46 states, and about 31.43% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Minnesota, this sits in the middle: 339 of 490 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $51,420, tax leaves $41,523, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $42,191 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $66,800, since top earners drag the number up.
- For camera operators, television, video, and film, Minnesota sits in the lower band at $51,420, ranking 33 of 46 and trailing the national median by about 31.43%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Camera operators, television, video, and film ranks 339 of 490 occupations in Minnesota 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.
- Because Minnesota sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for camera operators, television, video, and film — median $51,420 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $41,523 retained, $42,191 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $66,800 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Camera Operators, Television, Video, and Film
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,320 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,420 |
| Top tenth earn over | $115,420 |
| This salary | $51,420 |
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 Minnesota | $41,523 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,496 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,570 |
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 | $48,964 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,108 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $51,420 as a midpoint for Minnesota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,320 and the ninetieth is $115,420 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Minnesota's $41,523, worked from $51,420. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 339 of 490.
- One number stands for prices across all of Minnesota, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $42,191, the adjusted value of that $51,420 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 339 of 490 in the state.
- The Minnesota median of $51,420 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,320 to $115,420. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Minnesota take-home of $41,523, on $51,420 for work ranking 339 of 490 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 339 of 490 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Minnesota, so $42,191 — the adjusted value of that $51,420 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 339 of 490 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 $66,800 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $34,320 and the top tenth $115,420 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Minnesota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $42,191 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Minnesota adds its own income tax on top — which is why $41,523 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 46 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 Minnesota is $66,800. 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 ($34,320) and the ninetieth ($115,420) 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?
Minnesota'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 $42,191 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 $41,523 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Minnesota 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.