Opticians, Dispensing in Wyoming
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,597
after federal, FICA and Wyoming tax
Tax takes
$5,503
14.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,981
Wyoming costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wyoming — 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
$39,100
Kept after tax
$33,597
Worth in national money
$36,981
State rank
43
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for opticians, dispensing is on the low side in Wyoming. The middle earner gets $39,100. That is 43 of 51 states, and about 17.27% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 433 occupations Wyoming publishes, opticians, dispensing lands at 361. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Wyoming is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $39,100 the take-home is $33,597; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $36,981 would nationally. The average comes to $41,050, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For opticians, dispensing, Wyoming sits in the lower band at $39,100, ranking 43 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 17.27%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Wyoming, this work ranks 361 of 433 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.
- Post-tax income for opticians, dispensing in Wyoming, on $39,100, is $33,597 — equivalent to $36,981 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 $41,050 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Opticians, Dispensing
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,110 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,100 |
| Top tenth earn over | $53,840 |
| This salary | $39,100 |
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 Wyoming | $33,597 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,597 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,408 |
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 | $39,100 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,912 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $39,100 as a midpoint for Wyoming, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $33,110 and the ninetieth is $53,840 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $33,597 take-home in Wyoming comes from $39,100. 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 361 of 433.
- Two cautions on $36,981, the adjusted value of that $39,100 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Wyoming. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 361 of 433 locally.
- The Wyoming median of $39,100 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $33,110 to $53,840. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $33,597, from $39,100, assumes a single Wyoming 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 361 of 433 locally, and the state ranks 43 of 51 for it.
- This $36,981 adjusted figure, worked from $39,100, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 361 of 433 in the state. The occupation ranks 361 of 433 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 $41,050, 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?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $33,110 and the top tenth $53,840, so most people doing this work in Wyoming sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Wyoming sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $36,981 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $33,597 of this wage reaches your account, because Wyoming 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?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Wyoming is $41,050. 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 ($33,110 to $53,840) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Wyoming rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Wyoming'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 $36,981 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?
Wyoming levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $33,597 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.