Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,857
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$8,023
16.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,421
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$47,880
Kept after tax
$39,857
Worth in national money
$39,421
State rank
38
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Arizona. The middle earner gets $47,880. That is 38 of 51 states, and about 4.89% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 336 among 491 occupations Arizona publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $47,880, tax leaves $39,857, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $39,421 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $51,250, since top earners drag the number up.
- For dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance, Arizona sits in the lower band at $47,880, ranking 38 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 4.89%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 336 of 491 in Arizona places dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance 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.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance — median $47,880 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $39,857 retained, $39,421 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $51,250 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,450 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $68,900 |
| This salary | $47,880 |
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 Arizona | $39,857 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,652 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,412 |
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 | $46,891 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,917 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $47,880 as a midpoint for Arizona, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,450 and the ninetieth is $68,900 — 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 Arizona's $39,857, worked from $47,880. 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 336 of 491.
- Two cautions on $39,421, the adjusted value of that $47,880 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arizona. 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 336 of 491 locally.
- The Arizona median of $47,880 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,450 to $68,900. 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 Arizona take-home of $39,857, on $47,880 for work ranking 336 of 491 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 336 of 491 in the state.
- This $39,421 adjusted figure, worked from $47,880, 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 336 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 336 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 $51,250 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $37,450 and the top tenth $68,900, so most people doing this work in Arizona sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $39,421 of national purchasing power.
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 Arizona's own levy, $39,857 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Arizona is $51,250. 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 ($37,450 to $68,900) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arizona rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $39,421 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $39,857 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.