Museum Technicians and Conservators in Nebraska

Books, colored pencils and a globe in a bright classroom.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$34,689

after federal, FICA and Nebraska tax

Tax takes

$7,271

17.3% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$38,383

Nebraska costs less than average

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

$41,960

Kept after tax

$34,689

Worth in national money

$38,383

State rank

35

of 45 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for this job is on the low side in Nebraska. The middle earner gets $41,960. That is 35 of 45 states, and about 18.43% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
  • Against 488 occupations Nebraska publishes, this job lands at 392. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
  • Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $41,960 you keep $34,689 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $38,383 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $47,530, since top earners drag the number up.
  • For museum technicians and conservators, Nebraska sits in the lower band at $41,960, ranking 35 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 18.43%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
  • Within Nebraska, this work ranks 392 of 488 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
  • Retained pay in Nebraska is $34,689 after the full tax stack, from $41,960. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $38,383 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $47,530 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Museum Technicians and Conservators

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$32,180
Half earn under$41,960
Top tenth earn over$61,590
This salary$41,960

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

Compare with
+$1,206take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Nebraska$34,689
Take-home in Texas$35,895
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,445

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

Moving to
$0$43,707
$43,707in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$40,460
Raise you would need+$1,747
Prices in Texas97 vs 90

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Half the people doing this work in Nebraska earn less than $41,960. The published range is $32,180 up to $61,590, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • That $34,689 take-home in Nebraska comes from $41,960. 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 392 of 488.
  • One number stands for prices across all of Nebraska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $38,383, the adjusted value of that $41,960 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 392 of 488 in the state.
  • Reported values are medians; for museum technicians and conservators in Nebraska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $32,180 to $61,590. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • Retained pay of $34,689, from $41,960, assumes a single Nebraska 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 392 of 488 locally, and the state ranks 35 of 45 for it.
  • Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Nebraska, so $38,383 — the adjusted value of that $41,960 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 392 of 488 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $47,530, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $32,180 at the tenth percentile, $61,590 at the ninetieth.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $38,383.

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 Nebraska adds its own income tax on top — which is why $34,689 of this wage survives to your account.

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 Nebraska is $47,530. 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 ($32,180 to $61,590) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Nebraska rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Nebraska'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 $38,383 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 $34,689 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Nebraska 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.