Museum Technicians and Conservators in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,314
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$8,856
18.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,934
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — 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
$49,170
Kept after tax
$40,314
Worth in national money
$43,934
State rank
21
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Missouri pays this job around $49,170 at the midpoint, 21 of 45 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Missouri, this sits in the middle: 300 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $49,170 you keep $40,314 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $43,934 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $52,500, since top earners drag the number up.
- For museum technicians and conservators the Missouri median is $49,170, ranking 21 of 45 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.
- Museum technicians and conservators ranks 300 of 488 occupations in Missouri 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.
- Retained pay in Missouri is $40,314 after the full tax stack, from $49,170. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $43,934 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $52,500 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Museum Technicians and Conservators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,660 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,170 |
| Top tenth earn over | $69,970 |
| This salary | $49,170 |
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 Missouri | $40,314 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,688 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,034 |
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 | $47,460 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,250 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Missouri earn less than $49,170. The published range is $37,660 up to $69,970, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Missouri's $40,314, worked from $49,170. 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 300 of 488.
- One number stands for prices across all of Missouri, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $43,934, the adjusted value of that $49,170 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 300 of 488 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for museum technicians and conservators in Missouri the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $37,660 to $69,970. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Missouri take-home of $40,314, on $49,170 for work ranking 300 of 488 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 300 of 488 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Missouri, so $43,934 — the adjusted value of that $49,170 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 300 of 488 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 $52,500 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $37,660 at the bottom tenth to $69,970 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Missouri sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $43,934 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Missouri then takes its own share, leaving $40,314.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 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 Missouri is $52,500. 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 ($37,660 to $69,970) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Missouri rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri'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 $43,934 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 $40,314 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.