Funeral Attendants in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,458
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$6,602
16.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,692
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
$40,060
Kept after tax
$33,458
Worth in national money
$37,692
State rank
14
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Iowa pays funeral attendants a middle wage of $40,060, ranking 14 of 48 states and sitting about 12.28% above the national middle.
- Within Iowa this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, funeral attendants ranks 407. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Iowa is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $40,060 the take-home is $33,458; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $37,692 would nationally. The average comes to $41,860, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Iowa's median for funeral attendants is $40,060, about 12.28% above the national figure and 14 of 48 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Against every occupation Iowa reports, funeral attendants ranks 407 of 493, 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.
- Post-tax income for funeral attendants in Iowa, on $40,060, is $33,458 — equivalent to $37,692 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 $41,860 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: Funeral Attendants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,950 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,060 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,560 |
| This salary | $40,060 |
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 Iowa | $33,458 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,368 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,324 |
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 | $38,927 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,811 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $40,060 as a midpoint for Iowa, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,950 and the ninetieth is $47,560 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Iowa the take-home figure of $33,458, from $40,060, 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 407 of 493 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $37,692 uses one figure for the whole of Iowa. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 407.
- The Iowa median of $40,060 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,950 to $47,560. 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 Iowa is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $33,458 from $40,060. 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 407 of 493 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $37,692, worked from $40,060, 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 Iowa address, on work sitting at 407 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 $41,860 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $36,950 and the top tenth $47,560, so most people doing this work in Iowa sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $37,692.
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, $33,458 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 48 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $41,860. 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 ($36,950 to $47,560) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Iowa rather than a national figure.
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 $37,692 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 $33,458 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.