Interpreters and Translators in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$64,075
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$18,245
22.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$63,183
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$82,320
Kept after tax
$64,075
Worth in national money
$63,183
State rank
4
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Rhode Island pays interpreters and translators a middle wage of $82,320, ranking 4 of 47 states and sitting about 36.81% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Interpreters and translators ranks 140 among 452 occupations Rhode Island publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $82,320, tax leaves $64,075, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $63,183 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $85,370, since top earners drag the number up.
- Rhode Island's median for interpreters and translators is $82,320, about 36.81% above the national figure and 4 of 47 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 140 of 452 in Rhode Island places interpreters and translators in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for interpreters and translators — median $82,320 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $64,075 retained, $63,183 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $85,370 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Interpreters and Translators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $51,450 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $82,320 |
| Top tenth earn over | $134,270 |
| This salary | $82,320 |
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 Rhode Island | $64,075 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $66,742 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,499 |
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 | $78,529 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,596 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $82,320 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $51,450 and the ninetieth is $134,270 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Rhode Island the take-home figure of $64,075, from $82,320, 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 140 of 452 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Rhode Island, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $63,183, the adjusted value of that $82,320 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 140 of 452 in the state.
- The Rhode Island median of $82,320 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $51,450 to $134,270. 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 Rhode Island is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $64,075 from $82,320. 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 140 of 452 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Rhode Island, so $63,183 — the adjusted value of that $82,320 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 140 of 452 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 $85,370 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 $51,450 and the top tenth $134,270 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Rhode Island run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $63,183 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $64,075 of this wage survives to your account.
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 Rhode Island is $85,370. 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 ($51,450) and the ninetieth ($134,270) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $63,183 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $64,075 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.