Dietetic Technicians in Pennsylvania

A stethoscope and folded scrubs in a sunlit clinical workspace.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$28,525

after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax

Tax takes

$5,565

16.3% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$29,256

Pennsylvania 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

$34,090

Kept after tax

$28,525

Worth in national money

$29,256

State rank

36

of 45 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for dietetic technicians is on the low side in Pennsylvania. The middle earner gets $34,090. That is 36 of 45 states, and about 9.43% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
  • Against 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes, dietetic technicians lands at 465. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
  • Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $34,090, tax leaves $28,525, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $29,256 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $35,460, since top earners drag the number up.
  • For dietetic technicians, Pennsylvania sits in the lower band at $34,090, ranking 36 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 9.43%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
  • Within Pennsylvania, this work ranks 465 of 492 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
  • Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for dietetic technicians — median $34,090 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $28,525 retained, $29,256 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $35,460 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

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Pay band: Dietetic Technicians

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$29,810
Half earn under$34,090
Top tenth earn over$45,360
This salary$34,090

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
+$1,047take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Pennsylvania$28,525
Take-home in Texas$29,571
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$1,175

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 · $34,090$32,669
$32,669in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$32,787
You could take a cut of−$1,421
Prices in Texas97 vs 98

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

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $34,090 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,810 and the ninetieth is $45,360 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • In Pennsylvania the take-home figure of $28,525, from $34,090, 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 465 of 492 occupations here.
  • Two cautions on $29,256, the adjusted value of that $34,090 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Pennsylvania. 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 465 of 492 locally.
  • The Pennsylvania median of $34,090 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,810 to $45,360. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
  • Take-home for Pennsylvania is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $28,525 from $34,090. 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 465 of 492 locally.
  • This $29,256 adjusted figure, worked from $34,090, 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 465 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 465 of 492 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 $35,460, 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?

The range here is narrow. From $29,810 at the bottom tenth to $45,360 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

More than the figure suggests. Prices in Pennsylvania sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $29,256 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.

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 Pennsylvania's own levy, $28,525 remains.

Why is this job missing from some states?

A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 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 Pennsylvania is $35,460. 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 ($29,810 to $45,360) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Pennsylvania rather than a national figure.

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

Pennsylvania'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 $29,256 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 $28,525 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.