Emergency Medical Technicians in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,509
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$7,551
17.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,142
Wisconsin costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wisconsin — 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
$43,060
Kept after tax
$35,509
Worth in national money
$38,142
State rank
24
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Wisconsin pays this job around $43,060 at the midpoint, 24 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 491 occupations Wisconsin publishes, this job lands at 403. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $43,060 you keep $35,509 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $38,142 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $45,170, since top earners drag the number up.
- For emergency medical technicians the Wisconsin median is $43,060, ranking 24 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.
- Within Wisconsin, this work ranks 403 of 491 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.
- Retained pay in Wisconsin is $35,509 after the full tax stack, from $43,060. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $38,142 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $45,170 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: Emergency Medical Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,550 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,060 |
| Top tenth earn over | $60,910 |
| This salary | $43,060 |
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 Wisconsin | $35,509 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,779 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$294 |
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 | $41,480 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$356 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $43,060 as a midpoint for Wisconsin, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $33,550 and the ninetieth is $60,910 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Wisconsin the take-home figure of $35,509, from $43,060, 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 403 of 491 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Wisconsin, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $38,142, the adjusted value of that $43,060 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 403 of 491 in the state.
- The Wisconsin median of $43,060 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $33,550 to $60,910. 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 Wisconsin is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $35,509 from $43,060. 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 403 of 491 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Wisconsin, so $38,142 — the adjusted value of that $43,060 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 403 of 491 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 $45,170, 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 $33,550 at the bottom tenth to $60,910 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $38,142.
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 Wisconsin's own levy, $35,509 remains.
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 Wisconsin is $45,170. 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 ($33,550 to $60,910) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Wisconsin rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Wisconsin'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 $38,142 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 $35,509 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Wisconsin 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.