Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers in Connecticut
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,111
after federal, FICA and Connecticut tax
Tax takes
$5,849
16.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,039
Connecticut costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Connecticut — 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
$35,960
Kept after tax
$30,111
Worth in national money
$29,039
State rank
9
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Connecticut pays this job a middle wage of $35,960, ranking 9 of 51 states and sitting about 7.09% above the national middle.
- Against 482 occupations Connecticut publishes, this job lands at 463. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $35,960, tax leaves $30,111 — and because Connecticut is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $29,039 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $37,050, since top earners drag the number up.
- Connecticut's median for lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers is $35,960, about 7.09% above the national figure and 9 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Connecticut, this work ranks 463 of 482 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.
- After tax, $30,111 remains from the Connecticut median of $35,960 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $29,039 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $37,050 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,960 |
| Top tenth earn over | $39,740 |
| This salary | $35,960 |
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 Connecticut | $30,111 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,074 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,938 |
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 | $34,761 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,553 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $35,960 as a midpoint for Connecticut, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,010 and the ninetieth is $39,740 — 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 Connecticut's $30,111, worked from $35,960. 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 463 of 482.
- Two cautions on $29,039, the adjusted value of that $35,960 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Connecticut. 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 463 of 482 locally.
- The Connecticut median of $35,960 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,010 to $39,740. 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 Connecticut take-home of $30,111, on $35,960 for work ranking 463 of 482 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 463 of 482 in the state.
- This $29,039 adjusted figure, worked from $35,960, 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 463 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 463 of 482 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 $37,050 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $34,010 at the bottom tenth to $39,740 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $29,039 of national purchasing power.
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 Connecticut adds its own income tax on top — which is why $30,111 of this wage survives to your account.
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 Connecticut is $37,050. 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 ($34,010 to $39,740) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Connecticut rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Connecticut's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $29,039 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 $30,111 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Connecticut 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.
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.