Clergy in Wisconsin

Two armchairs facing each other in a welcoming counseling room.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$48,990

after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax

Tax takes

$11,960

19.6% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$52,622

Wisconsin 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

$60,950

Kept after tax

$48,990

Worth in national money

$52,622

State rank

21

of 50 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Middling, nationally. Wisconsin pays clergy around $60,950 at the midpoint, 21 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
  • Ordinary, locally speaking. Clergy ranks 241 among 491 occupations Wisconsin publishes pay for.
  • Wisconsin is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $60,950 the take-home is $48,990; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $52,622 would nationally. The average comes to $63,730, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
  • For clergy the Wisconsin median is $60,950, ranking 21 of 50 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.
  • Position 241 of 491 in Wisconsin places clergy in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
  • Post-tax income for clergy in Wisconsin, on $60,950, is $48,990 — equivalent to $52,622 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 $63,730 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Clergy

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$47,320
Half earn under$60,950
Top tenth earn over$80,770
This salary$60,950

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
+$2,164take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Wisconsin$48,990
Take-home in Texas$51,153
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$18

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 · $60,950$60,928
$60,928in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$58,257
You could take a cut of−$22
Prices in Texas97 vs 93

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 clergy in Wisconsin earn under $60,950 and half over. The published range runs $47,320 at the tenth percentile to $80,770 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • In Wisconsin the take-home figure of $48,990, from $60,950, 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 241 of 491 occupations here.
  • Two cautions on $52,622, the adjusted value of that $60,950 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Wisconsin. 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 241 of 491 locally.
  • Figures are distribution medians for clergy in Wisconsin, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $47,320 to $80,770; 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.
  • Take-home for Wisconsin is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $48,990 from $60,950. 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 241 of 491 locally.
  • This $52,622 adjusted figure, worked from $60,950, 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 241 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 241 of 491 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 $63,730 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $47,320 at the tenth percentile, $80,770 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 $52,622.

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 Wisconsin's own levy, $48,990 remains.

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 50 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 Wisconsin is $63,730. 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 ($47,320 to $80,770) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Wisconsin rather than a national figure.

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

Wisconsin'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 $52,622 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 $48,990 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Wisconsin 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.