Lifeguards, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Workers in Ohio
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$24,431
after federal, FICA and Ohio tax
Tax takes
$3,339
12.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,610
Ohio costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Ohio — 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
$27,770
Kept after tax
$24,431
Worth in national money
$26,610
State rank
42
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Ohio. The middle earner gets $27,770. That is 42 of 51 states, and about 17.3% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 494 occupations Ohio publishes, this job lands at 491. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Ohio is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $27,770 the take-home is $24,431; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $26,610 would nationally. The average comes to $28,820, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers, Ohio sits in the lower band at $27,770, ranking 42 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 17.3%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Ohio, this work ranks 491 of 494 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.
- Post-tax income for lifeguards, ski patrol, and other recreational protective service workers in Ohio, on $27,770, is $24,431 — equivalent to $26,610 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 $28,820 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 | $22,810 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $27,770 |
| Top tenth earn over | $36,200 |
| This salary | $27,770 |
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 Ohio | $24,431 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $24,479 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,420 |
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 | $27,713 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,699 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $27,770 as a midpoint for Ohio, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $22,810 and the ninetieth is $36,200 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $24,431 take-home in Ohio comes from $27,770. 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 491 of 494.
- Two cautions on $26,610, the adjusted value of that $27,770 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Ohio. 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 491 of 494 locally.
- The Ohio median of $27,770 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $22,810 to $36,200. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $24,431, from $27,770, assumes a single Ohio 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 491 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 42 of 51 for it.
- This $26,610 adjusted figure, worked from $27,770, 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 491 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 491 of 494 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 $28,820, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $22,810 at the tenth percentile, $36,200 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Ohio sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $26,610 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Ohio adds its own income tax on top — which is why $24,431 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 Ohio is $28,820. 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 ($22,810 to $36,200) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Ohio rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Ohio'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 $26,610 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 $24,431 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Ohio 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.