Mechanical Drafters in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$55,397
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$13,893
20.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,626
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$69,290
Kept after tax
$55,397
Worth in national money
$54,626
State rank
21
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Rhode Island pays mechanical drafters around $69,290 at the midpoint, 21 of 47 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Mechanical drafters ranks 202 among 452 occupations Rhode Island publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $69,290, tax leaves $55,397, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $54,626 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $70,850, since top earners drag the number up.
- For mechanical drafters the Rhode Island median is $69,290, ranking 21 of 47 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.
- Position 202 of 452 in Rhode Island places mechanical drafters in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for mechanical drafters — median $69,290 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $55,397 retained, $54,626 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $70,850 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Mechanical Drafters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $42,070 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $69,290 |
| Top tenth earn over | $96,830 |
| This salary | $69,290 |
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 Rhode Island | $55,397 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $57,576 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,623 |
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 | $66,232 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,939 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $69,290 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $42,070 and the ninetieth is $96,830 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Rhode Island the take-home figure of $55,397, from $69,290, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 202 of 452 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $54,626 uses one figure for the whole of Rhode Island. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 452 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 202.
- The Rhode Island median of $69,290 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $42,070 to $96,830. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Rhode Island is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $55,397 from $69,290. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 202 of 452 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $54,626, worked from $69,290, 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 Rhode Island address, on work sitting at 202 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $42,070 and the top tenth $96,830 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $54,626 of national purchasing power.
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 Rhode Island's own levy, $55,397 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($42,070) and the ninetieth ($96,830) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $54,626 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 $55,397 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.