Prepress Technicians and Workers in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,350
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$9,000
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,496
Maine costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maine — 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
$47,350
Kept after tax
$38,350
Worth in national money
$39,496
State rank
27
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Maine pays prepress technicians and workers around $47,350 at the midpoint, 27 of 45 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 484 occupations Maine reports figures for, this is number 357.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $47,350, tax leaves $38,350, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $39,496 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $50,490, since top earners drag the number up.
- For prepress technicians and workers the Maine median is $47,350, ranking 27 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.
- In Maine's occupational distribution, prepress technicians and workers sits at 357 of 484 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Because Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for prepress technicians and workers — median $47,350 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $38,350 retained, $39,496 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $50,490 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Prepress Technicians and Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,190 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,350 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,320 |
| This salary | $47,350 |
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 Maine | $38,350 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,226 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,899 |
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 | $45,015 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,297 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of prepress technicians and workers in Maine earn under $47,350 and half over. The published range runs $43,190 at the tenth percentile to $61,320 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $38,350 take-home in Maine comes from $47,350. 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 357 of 484.
- One number stands for prices across all of Maine, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $39,496, the adjusted value of that $47,350 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 357 of 484 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for prepress technicians and workers in Maine, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $43,190 to $61,320; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $38,350, from $47,350, assumes a single Maine 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 357 of 484 locally, and the state ranks 27 of 45 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Maine, so $39,496 — the adjusted value of that $47,350 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 357 of 484 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 $50,490, 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 $43,190 at the bottom tenth to $61,320 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 Maine sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $39,496 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Maine's own levy, $38,350 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 45 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Maine is $50,490. 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 ($43,190 to $61,320) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maine rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Maine'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 $39,496 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 $38,350 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.