Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,565
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$8,185
15.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,587
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
$52,750
Kept after tax
$44,565
Worth in national money
$50,587
State rank
50
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- South Dakota is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $52,750, ranking 50 of 51 states — about 18.09% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in South Dakota, this sits in the middle: 225 of 457 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $52,750 you keep $44,565 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $50,587 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $54,990, since top earners drag the number up.
- South Dakota ranks 50 of 51 for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses, with a median of $52,750 — about 18.09% 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.
- Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses ranks 225 of 457 occupations in South Dakota 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.
- Retained pay in South Dakota is $44,565 after the full tax stack, from $52,750. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $50,587 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $54,990 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,770 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $52,750 |
| Top tenth earn over | $67,700 |
| This salary | $52,750 |
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 | $44,565 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $44,565 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,727 |
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 | $52,750 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,717 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $52,750 as a midpoint for South Dakota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $40,770 and the ninetieth is $67,700 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In South Dakota the take-home figure of $44,565, from $52,750, 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 225 of 457 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $50,587, the adjusted value of that $52,750 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 225 of 457 locally.
- The South Dakota median of $52,750 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $40,770 to $67,700. 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 South Dakota is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $44,565 from $52,750. 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 225 of 457 locally.
- This $50,587 adjusted figure, worked from $52,750, 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 225 of 457 in the state. The occupation ranks 225 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 $54,990 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $40,770 at the tenth percentile, $67,700 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. South Dakota is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $50,587 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $44,565 survives, because South Dakota levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $54,990. 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 ($40,770 to $67,700) 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 $50,587 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 $44,565 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.