Mechanical Drafters in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,088
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$12,682
19.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,876
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
$63,770
Kept after tax
$51,088
Worth in national money
$54,876
State rank
30
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Wisconsin sits in the middle of the pack for mechanical drafters. The median is $63,770, ranking 30 of 47 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Mechanical drafters ranks 204 among 491 occupations Wisconsin publishes pay for.
- Wisconsin is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $63,770 the take-home is $51,088; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $54,876 would nationally. The average comes to $67,960, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Wisconsin occupies the middle band for mechanical drafters: a median of $63,770, ranking 30 of 47. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Position 204 of 491 in Wisconsin 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.
- Post-tax income for mechanical drafters in Wisconsin, on $63,770, is $51,088 — equivalent to $54,876 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 $67,960 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Mechanical Drafters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,770 |
| Top tenth earn over | $92,260 |
| This salary | $63,770 |
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 Wisconsin | $51,088 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,419 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$96 |
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 | $60,869 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$116 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $63,770 as a midpoint for Wisconsin, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,010 and the ninetieth is $92,260 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Wisconsin's $51,088, worked from $63,770. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 204 of 491.
- Two cautions on $54,876, the adjusted value of that $63,770 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 204 of 491 locally.
- The Wisconsin median of $63,770 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,010 to $92,260. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Wisconsin take-home of $51,088, on $63,770 for work ranking 204 of 491 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 204 of 491 in the state.
- This $54,876 adjusted figure, worked from $63,770, 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 204 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 204 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 $67,960 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 $48,010 and the top tenth $92,260, so most people doing this work in Wisconsin sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Wisconsin is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $54,876 in national terms.
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 $51,088 of this wage survives to your account.
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.
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 $67,960. 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 ($48,010 to $92,260) 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 $54,876 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 $51,088 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.