Opticians, Dispensing in Vermont
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$46,586
after federal, FICA and Vermont tax
Tax takes
$10,764
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,208
Vermont costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Vermont — 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
$57,350
Kept after tax
$46,586
Worth in national money
$48,208
State rank
10
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Vermont is one of the better-paying states for opticians, dispensing. The middle earner takes $57,350, which ranks 10 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 21.35% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Vermont, this sits in the middle: 267 of 453 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 $57,350 you keep $46,586 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $48,208 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $62,790, since top earners drag the number up.
- Vermont ranks 10 of 51 states publishing a median for opticians, dispensing, at $57,350 — about 21.35% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Opticians, dispensing ranks 267 of 453 occupations in Vermont 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 Vermont is $46,586 after the full tax stack, from $57,350. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $48,208 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $62,790 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Opticians, Dispensing
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $41,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,350 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,850 |
| This salary | $57,350 |
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 Vermont | $46,586 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,261 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,455 |
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 | $55,266 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,760 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Vermont earn less than $57,350. The published range is $41,600 up to $76,850, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $46,586 take-home in Vermont comes from $57,350. 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 267 of 453.
- One number stands for prices across all of Vermont, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $48,208, the adjusted value of that $57,350 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 267 of 453 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for opticians, dispensing in Vermont the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $41,600 to $76,850. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $46,586, from $57,350, assumes a single Vermont 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 267 of 453 locally, and the state ranks 10 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Vermont, so $48,208 — the adjusted value of that $57,350 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 267 of 453 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 $62,790, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $41,600 at the bottom tenth to $76,850 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 Vermont sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $48,208 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Vermont adds its own income tax on top — which is why $46,586 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Vermont is $62,790. 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 ($41,600 to $76,850) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Vermont rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Vermont'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 $48,208 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 $46,586 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Vermont 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.