Light Truck Drivers in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$37,478
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$8,192
17.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,257
Wisconsin costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wisconsin — 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
$45,670
Kept after tax
$37,478
Worth in national money
$40,257
State rank
18
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Wisconsin pays light truck drivers around $45,670 at the midpoint, 18 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 491 occupations Wisconsin publishes, light truck drivers lands at 383. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Wisconsin is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $45,670 the take-home is $37,478; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $40,257 would nationally. The average comes to $48,570, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For light truck drivers the Wisconsin median is $45,670, ranking 18 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 Wisconsin, this work ranks 383 of 491 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 light truck drivers in Wisconsin, on $45,670, is $37,478 — equivalent to $40,257 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 $48,570 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Light Truck Drivers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,340 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $45,670 |
| Top tenth earn over | $72,860 |
| This salary | $45,670 |
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 Wisconsin | $37,478 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,876 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$251 |
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 | $43,930 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$303 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $45,670 as a midpoint for Wisconsin, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $30,340 and the ninetieth is $72,860 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $37,478 take-home in Wisconsin comes from $45,670. 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 383 of 491.
- Two cautions on $40,257, the adjusted value of that $45,670 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Wisconsin. 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 383 of 491 locally.
- The Wisconsin median of $45,670 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $30,340 to $72,860. 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 $37,478, from $45,670, assumes a single Wisconsin 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 383 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 18 of 51 for it.
- This $40,257 adjusted figure, worked from $45,670, 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 383 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 383 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $48,570, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $30,340, the highest tenth $72,860, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $40,257.
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 Wisconsin adds its own income tax on top — which is why $37,478 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 Wisconsin is $48,570. 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 ($30,340) and the ninetieth ($72,860) 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?
Wisconsin'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 $40,257 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 $37,478 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Wisconsin 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.