Funeral Attendants in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,046
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$5,124
13.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,377
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$37,170
Kept after tax
$32,046
Worth in national money
$36,377
State rank
20
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. South Dakota pays funeral attendants around $37,170 at the midpoint, 20 of 48 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 457 occupations South Dakota publishes, funeral attendants lands at 403. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- South Dakota is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $37,170 the take-home is $32,046; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $36,377 would nationally. The average comes to $39,930, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For funeral attendants the South Dakota median is $37,170, ranking 20 of 48 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 South Dakota, this work ranks 403 of 457 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.
- Post-tax income for funeral attendants in South Dakota, on $37,170, is $32,046 — equivalent to $36,377 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 $39,930 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Funeral Attendants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,800 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,170 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,940 |
| This salary | $37,170 |
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 South Dakota | $32,046 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,046 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,399 |
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 | $37,170 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,111 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $37,170 as a midpoint for South Dakota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $30,800 and the ninetieth is $47,940 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $32,046 take-home in South Dakota comes from $37,170. 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 403 of 457.
- Two cautions on $36,377, the adjusted value of that $37,170 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Dakota. 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 403 of 457 locally.
- The South Dakota median of $37,170 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $30,800 to $47,940. 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 $32,046, from $37,170, assumes a single South Dakota 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 403 of 457 locally, and the state ranks 20 of 48 for it.
- This $36,377 adjusted figure, worked from $37,170, 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 403 of 457 in the state. The occupation ranks 403 of 457 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 $39,930 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 $30,800 and the top tenth $47,940, so most people doing this work in South Dakota sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in South Dakota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $36,377 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $32,046 survives, because South Dakota levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 South Dakota is $39,930. 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 ($30,800 to $47,940) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Dakota'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 $36,377 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $32,046 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.