Carpenters in Nebraska

A hard hat, safety glasses and tool belt beside timber house framing.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$41,026

after federal, FICA and Nebraska tax

Tax takes

$9,294

18.5% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$45,395

Nebraska 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

$50,320

Kept after tax

$41,026

Worth in national money

$45,395

State rank

40

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for carpenters is on the low side in Nebraska. The middle earner gets $50,320. That is 40 of 51 states, and about 16.94% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
  • Against other work in Nebraska, this sits in the middle: 284 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
  • Nebraska is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $50,320 the take-home is $41,026; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $45,395 would nationally. The average comes to $54,960, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
  • For carpenters, Nebraska sits in the lower band at $50,320, ranking 40 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 16.94%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
  • Carpenters ranks 284 of 488 occupations in Nebraska 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 carpenters in Nebraska, on $50,320, is $41,026 — equivalent to $45,395 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 $54,960 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Carpenters

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$38,920
Half earn under$50,320
Top tenth earn over$72,800
This salary$50,320

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
+$1,586take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Nebraska$41,026
Take-home in Texas$42,612
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,544

The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.

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
$0$52,187
$52,187in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$48,346
Raise you would need+$1,867
Prices in Texas97 vs 90

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

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $50,320 as a midpoint for Nebraska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $38,920 and the ninetieth is $72,800 — 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 Nebraska's $41,026, worked from $50,320. 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 284 of 488.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $45,395 uses one figure for the whole of Nebraska. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 284.
  • The Nebraska median of $50,320 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $38,920 to $72,800. 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 Nebraska take-home of $41,026, on $50,320 for work ranking 284 of 488 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 284 of 488 in the state.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $45,395, worked from $50,320, 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 Nebraska address, on work sitting at 284 of 488 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 $54,960, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $38,920 at the tenth percentile, $72,800 at the ninetieth.

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 $45,395.

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 Nebraska's own levy, $41,026 remains.

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 Nebraska is $54,960. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($38,920 to $72,800) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Nebraska rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Nebraska'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 $45,395 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 $41,026 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Nebraska 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.