Museum Technicians and Conservators in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,327
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$6,514
16.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,723
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
$38,840
Kept after tax
$32,327
Worth in national money
$34,723
State rank
40
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Wisconsin pays this job a middle wage of $38,840, 40 of 45 states and about 24.49% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Wisconsin this is lower-paid work. Of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 428. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $38,840 you keep $32,327 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $34,723 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $40,130, since top earners drag the number up.
- Wisconsin's $38,840 median for museum technicians and conservators places it 40 of 45 states, about 24.49% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Wisconsin reports, museum technicians and conservators ranks 428 of 491, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Wisconsin is $32,327 after the full tax stack, from $38,840. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $34,723 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $40,130 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 | $26,240 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,840 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,300 |
| This salary | $38,840 |
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 | $32,327 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,388 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$365 |
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 | $37,519 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$441 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Wisconsin earn less than $38,840. The published range is $26,240 up to $58,300, 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 Wisconsin's $32,327, worked from $38,840. 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 428 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $34,723 uses one figure for the whole of Wisconsin. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 428.
- Reported values are medians; for museum technicians and conservators in Wisconsin the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $26,240 to $58,300. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Wisconsin take-home of $32,327, on $38,840 for work ranking 428 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 428 of 491 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $34,723, worked from $38,840, 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 Wisconsin address, on work sitting at 428 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 $40,130 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $26,240, the highest tenth $58,300, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $34,723 in national terms.
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 Wisconsin's own levy, $32,327 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 45 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $40,130. 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 ($26,240) and the ninetieth ($58,300) 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?
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 $34,723 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 $32,327 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.