Construction and Building Inspectors in Oklahoma
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,644
after federal, FICA and Oklahoma tax
Tax takes
$11,636
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$53,966
Oklahoma costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Oklahoma — 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
$59,280
Kept after tax
$47,644
Worth in national money
$53,966
State rank
48
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Oklahoma is among the lower-paying states for construction and building inspectors. The middle earner takes $59,280, ranking 48 of 51 states — about 20.63% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Oklahoma, this sits in the middle: 196 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $59,280 you keep $47,644 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $53,966 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $63,610, since top earners drag the number up.
- Oklahoma ranks 48 of 51 for construction and building inspectors, with a median of $59,280 — about 20.63% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Construction and building inspectors ranks 196 of 492 occupations in Oklahoma 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.
- Retained pay in Oklahoma is $47,644 after the full tax stack, from $59,280. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $53,966 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $63,610 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Construction and Building Inspectors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $41,410 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,280 |
| Top tenth earn over | $94,850 |
| This salary | $59,280 |
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 Oklahoma | $47,644 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,811 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,706 |
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
| To match take-home only | $56,583 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,273 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $59,280 as a midpoint for Oklahoma, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $41,410 and the ninetieth is $94,850 — 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 Oklahoma's $47,644, worked from $59,280. 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 196 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of Oklahoma, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $53,966, the adjusted value of that $59,280 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 196 of 492 in the state.
- The Oklahoma median of $59,280 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $41,410 to $94,850. 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 Oklahoma take-home of $47,644, on $59,280 for work ranking 196 of 492 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 196 of 492 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Oklahoma, so $53,966 — the adjusted value of that $59,280 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 196 of 492 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 $63,610 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $41,410, the highest tenth $94,850, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Oklahoma is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $53,966 in national terms.
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 Oklahoma adds its own income tax on top — which is why $47,644 of this wage survives to your account.
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 Oklahoma is $63,610. 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 ($41,410) and the ninetieth ($94,850) 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?
Oklahoma'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 $53,966 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 $47,644 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Oklahoma 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.