Insurance Underwriters in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$59,461
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$15,699
20.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$66,985
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
$75,160
Kept after tax
$59,461
Worth in national money
$66,985
State rank
38
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Iowa is among the lower-paying states for insurance underwriters. The middle earner takes $75,160, ranking 38 of 49 states — about 7.63% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Iowa, this sits in the middle: 134 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Iowa is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $75,160 the take-home is $59,461; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $66,985 would nationally. The average comes to $83,220, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Iowa ranks 38 of 49 for insurance underwriters, with a median of $75,160 — about 7.63% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Insurance underwriters ranks 134 of 493 occupations in Iowa by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Post-tax income for insurance underwriters in Iowa, on $75,160, is $59,461 — equivalent to $66,985 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 $83,220 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Insurance Underwriters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $51,800 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $75,160 |
| Top tenth earn over | $128,080 |
| This salary | $75,160 |
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 | $59,461 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,705 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,486 |
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 | $71,970 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,816 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Iowa earn less than $75,160. The published range is $51,800 up to $128,080, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $59,461 take-home in Iowa comes from $75,160. 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 134 of 493.
- Two cautions on $66,985, the adjusted value of that $75,160 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Iowa. 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 134 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for insurance underwriters in Iowa the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $51,800 to $128,080. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $59,461, from $75,160, 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 134 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 49 for it.
- This $66,985 adjusted figure, worked from $75,160, 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 134 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 134 of 493 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 $83,220, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $51,800, the highest tenth $128,080, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Iowa is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $66,985 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Iowa adds its own income tax on top — which is why $59,461 of this wage survives to your account.
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 $83,220. 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 ($51,800) and the ninetieth ($128,080) 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 $66,985 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 $59,461 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.