Electricians in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$54,311
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$13,289
19.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,704
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$67,600
Kept after tax
$54,311
Worth in national money
$55,704
State rank
22
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Pennsylvania pays electricians around $67,600 at the midpoint, 22 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Electricians ranks 176 among 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $67,600, tax leaves $54,311, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $55,704 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $75,770, since top earners drag the number up.
- For electricians the Pennsylvania median is $67,600, ranking 22 of 51 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 176 of 492 in Pennsylvania places electricians 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 Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for electricians — median $67,600 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $54,311 retained, $55,704 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $75,770 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Electricians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $67,600 |
| Top tenth earn over | $122,620 |
| This salary | $67,600 |
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 Pennsylvania | $54,311 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $56,387 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,322 |
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 | $64,880 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,945 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $67,600 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $45,600 and the ninetieth is $122,620 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $54,311 take-home in Pennsylvania comes from $67,600. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 176 of 492.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $55,704 uses one figure for the whole of Pennsylvania. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 492 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 176.
- The Pennsylvania median of $67,600 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $45,600 to $122,620. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $54,311, from $67,600, assumes a single Pennsylvania filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 176 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 22 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $55,704, worked from $67,600, 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 Pennsylvania address, on work sitting at 176 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 $75,770 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $45,600 and the top tenth $122,620 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $55,704 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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; Pennsylvania then takes its own share, leaving $54,311.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 $75,770. 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 ($45,600) and the ninetieth ($122,620) 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?
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 $55,704 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 $54,311 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.
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.