Interpreters and Translators in Indiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,470
after federal, FICA and Indiana tax
Tax takes
$8,670
18.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,816
Indiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Indiana — 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
$48,140
Kept after tax
$39,470
Worth in national money
$42,816
State rank
41
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for interpreters and translators is on the low side in Indiana. The middle earner gets $48,140. That is 41 of 47 states, and about 19.99% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Indiana, this sits in the middle: 320 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Indiana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $48,140 the take-home is $39,470; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $42,816 would nationally. The average comes to $56,690, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For interpreters and translators, Indiana sits in the lower band at $48,140, ranking 41 of 47 and trailing the national median by about 19.99%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Interpreters and translators ranks 320 of 493 occupations in Indiana 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 interpreters and translators in Indiana, on $48,140, is $39,470 — equivalent to $42,816 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 $56,690 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Interpreters and Translators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $41,460 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,140 |
| Top tenth earn over | $80,810 |
| This salary | $48,140 |
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 Indiana | $39,470 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,860 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$768 |
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 | $46,409 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$929 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $48,140 as a midpoint for Indiana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $41,460 and the ninetieth is $80,810 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Indiana's $39,470, worked from $48,140. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 320 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Indiana, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $42,816, the adjusted value of that $48,140 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 320 of 493 in the state.
- The Indiana median of $48,140 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $41,460 to $80,810. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Indiana take-home of $39,470, on $48,140 for work ranking 320 of 493 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 320 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Indiana, so $42,816 — the adjusted value of that $48,140 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 320 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 $56,690 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $41,460, the highest tenth $80,810, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Indiana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $42,816 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Indiana then takes its own share, leaving $39,470.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 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 Indiana is $56,690. 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 ($41,460) and the ninetieth ($80,810) 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?
Indiana'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 $42,816 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 $39,470 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Indiana 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.