Camera Operators, Television, Video, and Film in Vermont

A camera, paintbrushes and fabric swatches on a creative studio table.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$38,126

after federal, FICA and Vermont tax

Tax takes

$8,224

17.7% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$39,453

Vermont costs less than average

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

$46,350

Kept after tax

$38,126

Worth in national money

$39,453

State rank

40

of 46 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • The nominal figure here is modest. Vermont pays this job a middle wage of $46,350, 40 of 46 states and about 38.19% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
  • Within Vermont this is lower-paid work. Of 453 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 368. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
  • Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $46,350 you keep $38,126 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $39,453 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $64,740, since top earners drag the number up.
  • Vermont's $46,350 median for camera operators, television, video, and film places it 40 of 46 states, about 38.19% 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 Vermont reports, camera operators, television, video, and film ranks 368 of 453, 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.
  • Retained pay in Vermont is $38,126 after the full tax stack, from $46,350. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $39,453 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $64,740 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

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$36,810
Half earn under$46,350
Top tenth earn over$119,660
This salary$46,350

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

Compare with
+$1,296take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Vermont$38,126
Take-home in Texas$39,422
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$1,115

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

Moving to
$0now · $46,350$45,002
$45,002in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$44,736
You could take a cut of−$1,348
Prices in Texas97 vs 97

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $46,350 as a midpoint for Vermont, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,810 and the ninetieth is $119,660 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • That $38,126 take-home in Vermont comes from $46,350. 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 368 of 453.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $39,453 uses one figure for the whole of Vermont. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 453 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 368.
  • The Vermont median of $46,350 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,810 to $119,660. 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 $38,126, from $46,350, assumes a single Vermont 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 368 of 453 locally, and the state ranks 40 of 46 for it.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $39,453, worked from $46,350, 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 Vermont address, on work sitting at 368 of 453 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 $64,740 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 $36,810 and the top tenth $119,660 — 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 Vermont sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $39,453 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.

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; Vermont then takes its own share, leaving $38,126.

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 Vermont is $64,740. 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 ($36,810) and the ninetieth ($119,660) 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?

Vermont'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 $39,453 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 $38,126 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Vermont 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.