Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers in Idaho
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,898
after federal, FICA and Idaho tax
Tax takes
$7,892
18.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,265
Idaho costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Idaho — 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
$43,790
Kept after tax
$35,898
Worth in national money
$39,265
State rank
47
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Idaho pays drywall and ceiling tile installers a middle wage of $43,790, 47 of 49 states and about 25.69% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Idaho, this sits in the middle: 353 of 476 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 $43,790 you keep $35,898 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $39,265 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $48,240, since top earners drag the number up.
- Idaho's $43,790 median for drywall and ceiling tile installers places it 47 of 49 states, about 25.69% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Drywall and ceiling tile installers ranks 353 of 476 occupations in Idaho 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 Idaho is $35,898 after the full tax stack, from $43,790. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $39,265 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $48,240 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,580 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,790 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,820 |
| This salary | $43,790 |
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 Idaho | $35,898 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,365 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$813 |
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 | $41,964 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$983 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $43,790 as a midpoint for Idaho, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,580 and the ninetieth is $64,820 — 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 Idaho's $35,898, worked from $43,790. 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 353 of 476.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $39,265 uses one figure for the whole of Idaho. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 476 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 353.
- The Idaho median of $43,790 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,580 to $64,820. 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 Idaho take-home of $35,898, on $43,790 for work ranking 353 of 476 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 353 of 476 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $39,265, worked from $43,790, 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 Idaho address, on work sitting at 353 of 476 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $48,240, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $29,580, the highest tenth $64,820, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $39,265.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Idaho then takes its own share, leaving $35,898.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Idaho is $48,240. 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 ($29,580) and the ninetieth ($64,820) 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?
Idaho'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 $39,265 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 $35,898 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Idaho 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.