Light Truck Drivers in Indiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,699
after federal, FICA and Indiana tax
Tax takes
$7,861
17.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,811
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
$44,560
Kept after tax
$36,699
Worth in national money
$39,811
State rank
24
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Indiana pays light truck drivers around $44,560 at the midpoint, 24 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 493 occupations Indiana publishes, light truck drivers lands at 374. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Here is where Indiana does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $44,560 you keep $36,699, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $39,811 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $49,150, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For light truck drivers the Indiana median is $44,560, ranking 24 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Indiana, this work ranks 374 of 493 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 federal, FICA and Indiana income tax, retained pay for light truck drivers on $44,560 is $36,699. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $39,811 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $49,150 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Light Truck Drivers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,330 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,560 |
| Top tenth earn over | $92,080 |
| This salary | $44,560 |
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 | $36,699 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,984 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$722 |
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 | $42,961 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$874 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $44,560 as a midpoint for Indiana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,330 and the ninetieth is $92,080 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $36,699 take-home in Indiana comes from $44,560. 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 374 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $39,811 uses one figure for the whole of Indiana. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 374.
- The Indiana median of $44,560 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,330 to $92,080. 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 $36,699, from $44,560, assumes a single Indiana 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 374 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 24 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $39,811, worked from $44,560, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Indiana address, on work sitting at 374 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 $49,150 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $29,330 at the bottom tenth to $92,080 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $39,811.
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 Indiana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $36,699 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 Indiana is $49,150. 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 ($29,330) and the ninetieth ($92,080) 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 $39,811 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 $36,699 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.
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.