Environmental Engineers in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$68,250
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$21,740
24.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$73,311
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
$89,990
Kept after tax
$68,250
Worth in national money
$73,311
State rank
47
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Wisconsin pays environmental engineers a middle wage of $89,990, 47 of 50 states and about 15.98% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Wisconsin this is well-paid work. Of 491 occupations with published figures in the state, environmental engineers ranks 81 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Wisconsin is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $89,990 the take-home is $68,250; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $73,311 would nationally. The average comes to $101,050, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Wisconsin's $89,990 median for environmental engineers places it 47 of 50 states, about 15.98% 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.
- Ranked against every occupation Wisconsin publishes a median for, environmental engineers sits 81 of 491 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Post-tax income for environmental engineers in Wisconsin, on $89,990, is $68,250 — equivalent to $73,311 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $101,050 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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: Environmental Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $69,940 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $89,990 |
| Top tenth earn over | $154,010 |
| This salary | $89,990 |
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 | $68,250 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $72,138 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$924 |
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 | $84,464 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,276 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $89,990 as a midpoint for Wisconsin, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $69,940 and the ninetieth is $154,010 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $68,250 take-home in Wisconsin comes from $89,990. 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 81 of 491.
- Two cautions on $73,311, the adjusted value of that $89,990 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Wisconsin. 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 81 of 491 locally.
- The Wisconsin median of $89,990 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $69,940 to $154,010. 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 $68,250, from $89,990, assumes a single Wisconsin 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 81 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 47 of 50 for it.
- This $73,311 adjusted figure, worked from $89,990, 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 81 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 81 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 $101,050 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 $69,940 and the top tenth $154,010 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Wisconsin is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $73,311 in national terms.
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, $68,250 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 Wisconsin is $101,050. 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 ($69,940) and the ninetieth ($154,010) 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?
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 $73,311 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 $68,250 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.
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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.