Medical Records Specialists in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,649
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$7,961
15.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,547
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$51,610
Kept after tax
$43,649
Worth in national money
$49,547
State rank
27
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. South Dakota pays medical records specialists around $51,610 at the midpoint, 27 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in South Dakota, this sits in the middle: 234 of 457 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- South Dakota is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $51,610 the take-home is $43,649; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $49,547 would nationally. The average comes to $54,380, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For medical records specialists the South Dakota median is $51,610, ranking 27 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.
- Medical records specialists ranks 234 of 457 occupations in South Dakota 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.
- Post-tax income for medical records specialists in South Dakota, on $51,610, is $43,649 — equivalent to $49,547 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 $54,380 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Medical Records Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,920 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,610 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,950 |
| This salary | $51,610 |
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 South Dakota | $43,649 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,649 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,630 |
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 | $51,610 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,599 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in South Dakota earn less than $51,610. The published range is $36,920 up to $76,950, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $43,649 take-home in South Dakota comes from $51,610. 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 234 of 457.
- One number stands for prices across all of South Dakota, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $49,547, the adjusted value of that $51,610 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 234 of 457 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for medical records specialists in South Dakota the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $36,920 to $76,950. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $43,649, from $51,610, assumes a single South Dakota 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 234 of 457 locally, and the state ranks 27 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for South Dakota, so $49,547 — the adjusted value of that $51,610 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 234 of 457 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $54,380, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $36,920, the highest tenth $76,950, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in South Dakota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $49,547 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $43,649 of this wage reaches your account, because South Dakota takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 South Dakota is $54,380. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($36,920) and the ninetieth ($76,950) 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?
South Dakota'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 $49,547 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $43,649 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.