Medical Equipment Preparers in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,018
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$9,442
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,433
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
$51,460
Kept after tax
$42,018
Worth in national money
$41,433
State rank
7
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for medical equipment preparers is strong here. Rhode Island's middle earner gets $51,460, putting the state 7 of 51 — about 7.88% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Rhode Island, this sits in the middle: 304 of 452 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $51,460 the take-home is $42,018, which is worth about $41,433 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $53,380, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For medical equipment preparers, Rhode Island sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $51,460, ranking 7 of 51 and running about 7.88% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Medical equipment preparers ranks 304 of 452 occupations in Rhode Island by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Rhode Island's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for medical equipment preparers on its $51,460 median: $42,018 retained after tax becomes $41,433 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $53,380 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Medical Equipment Preparers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,940 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,460 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,500 |
| This salary | $51,460 |
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 | $42,018 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,528 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,360 |
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 | $49,581 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,064 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $51,460 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $39,940 and the ninetieth is $62,500 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Rhode Island the take-home figure of $42,018, from $51,460, 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 304 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 $41,433 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 304.
- The Rhode Island median of $51,460 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $39,940 to $62,500. 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 $42,018 from $51,460. 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 304 of 452 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $41,433, worked from $51,460, 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 304 of 452 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 $53,380 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $39,940 at the tenth percentile, $62,500 at the ninetieth.
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 $41,433 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, $42,018 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Rhode Island is $53,380. 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 ($39,940 to $62,500) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.
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 $41,433 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 $42,018 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.
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.