Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,690
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$7,610
17.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,337
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
$43,300
Kept after tax
$35,690
Worth in national money
$38,337
State rank
11
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Wisconsin is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $43,300, which ranks 11 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 13.05% above the national middle.
- Against 491 occupations Wisconsin publishes, this job lands at 402. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $43,300 you keep $35,690 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $38,337 at national prices. Here the average runs under the middle, at $41,870.
- Wisconsin ranks 11 of 50 states publishing a median for meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers, at $43,300 — about 13.05% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Within Wisconsin, this work ranks 402 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.
- Retained pay in Wisconsin is $35,690 after the full tax stack, from $43,300. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $38,337 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $41,870 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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Pay band: Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,890 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,300 |
| Top tenth earn over | $48,490 |
| This salary | $43,300 |
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 | $35,690 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,972 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$290 |
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 | $41,705 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$351 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Wisconsin earn less than $43,300. The published range is $35,890 up to $48,490, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $35,690 take-home in Wisconsin comes from $43,300. 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 402 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Wisconsin, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $38,337, the adjusted value of that $43,300 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 402 of 491 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers in Wisconsin the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $35,890 to $48,490. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $35,690, from $43,300, 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 402 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 11 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Wisconsin, so $38,337 — the adjusted value of that $43,300 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 402 of 491 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 $41,870 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $35,890 and the top tenth $48,490, so most people doing this work in Wisconsin sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $38,337.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Wisconsin's own levy, $35,690 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $41,870. 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 ($35,890 to $48,490) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Wisconsin rather than a national figure.
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 $38,337 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 $35,690 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.