Financial Examiners in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$62,928
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$17,442
21.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$70,891
Iowa costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Iowa — 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
$80,370
Kept after tax
$62,928
Worth in national money
$70,891
State rank
34
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Iowa pays financial examiners a middle wage of $80,370, 34 of 49 states and about 14.65% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Iowa. It ranks 100 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Iowa is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $80,370 the take-home is $62,928; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $70,891 would nationally. The average comes to $91,570, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Iowa's $80,370 median for financial examiners places it 34 of 49 states, about 14.65% 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.
- Within Iowa, financial examiners ranks 100 of 493 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Post-tax income for financial examiners in Iowa, on $80,370, is $62,928 — equivalent to $70,891 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 $91,570 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Financial Examiners
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $55,650 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $80,370 |
| Top tenth earn over | $149,160 |
| This salary | $80,370 |
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 Iowa | $62,928 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,370 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,621 |
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 | $76,898 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,001 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $80,370 as a midpoint for Iowa, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $55,650 and the ninetieth is $149,160 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $62,928 take-home in Iowa comes from $80,370. 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 100 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Iowa, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $70,891, the adjusted value of that $80,370 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 100 of 493 in the state.
- The Iowa median of $80,370 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $55,650 to $149,160. 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 $62,928, from $80,370, assumes a single Iowa 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 100 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 34 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Iowa, so $70,891 — the adjusted value of that $80,370 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 100 of 493 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 $91,570 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 $55,650 and the top tenth $149,160 — 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 Iowa sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $70,891 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Iowa's own levy, $62,928 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 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 Iowa is $91,570. 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 ($55,650) and the ninetieth ($149,160) 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?
Iowa'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 $70,891 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 $62,928 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Iowa 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.