Emergency Medical Technicians in Nebraska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,500
after federal, FICA and Nebraska tax
Tax takes
$7,210
17.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,174
Nebraska costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Nebraska — 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
$41,710
Kept after tax
$34,500
Worth in national money
$38,174
State rank
28
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Nebraska is 28 of 51 states for this job, with a middle wage of $41,710. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within Nebraska this is lower-paid work. Of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 394. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $41,710 you keep $34,500 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $38,174 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $48,700, since top earners drag the number up.
- Nebraska ranks 28 of 51 for emergency medical technicians at $41,710. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation Nebraska reports, emergency medical technicians ranks 394 of 488, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Nebraska is $34,500 after the full tax stack, from $41,710. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $38,174 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $48,700 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Emergency Medical Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,060 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $41,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $68,670 |
| This salary | $41,710 |
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 Nebraska | $34,500 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $35,694 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,442 |
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 | $40,224 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,744 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $41,710 as a midpoint for Nebraska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,060 and the ninetieth is $68,670 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Nebraska the take-home figure of $34,500, from $41,710, 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 394 of 488 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $38,174, the adjusted value of that $41,710 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Nebraska. 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 394 of 488 locally.
- The Nebraska median of $41,710 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,060 to $68,670. 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 Nebraska is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $34,500 from $41,710. 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 394 of 488 locally.
- This $38,174 adjusted figure, worked from $41,710, 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 394 of 488 in the state. The occupation ranks 394 of 488 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 $48,700 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 $35,060, the highest tenth $68,670, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Nebraska sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $38,174 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Nebraska adds its own income tax on top — which is why $34,500 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 Nebraska is $48,700. 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 ($35,060) and the ninetieth ($68,670) 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?
Nebraska'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 $38,174 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 $34,500 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Nebraska 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.