Public Safety Telecommunicators in Idaho
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,894
after federal, FICA and Idaho tax
Tax takes
$9,886
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,824
Idaho costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Idaho — 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
$51,780
Kept after tax
$41,894
Worth in national money
$45,824
State rank
28
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Idaho pays this job around $51,780 at the midpoint, 28 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 263 among 476 occupations Idaho publishes pay for.
- Idaho is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $51,780 the take-home is $41,894; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $45,824 would nationally. The average comes to $56,010, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For public safety telecommunicators the Idaho median is $51,780, ranking 28 of 51 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.
- Position 263 of 476 in Idaho places public safety telecommunicators in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Post-tax income for public safety telecommunicators in Idaho, on $51,780, is $41,894 — equivalent to $45,824 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 $56,010 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Public Safety Telecommunicators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,360 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,560 |
| This salary | $51,780 |
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 Idaho | $41,894 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,785 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$765 |
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 | $49,426 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$926 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $51,780 as a midpoint for Idaho, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $43,360 and the ninetieth is $75,560 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Idaho's $41,894, worked from $51,780. 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 263 of 476.
- Two cautions on $45,824, the adjusted value of that $51,780 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Idaho. 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 263 of 476 locally.
- The Idaho median of $51,780 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $43,360 to $75,560. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Idaho take-home of $41,894, on $51,780 for work ranking 263 of 476 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 263 of 476 in the state.
- This $45,824 adjusted figure, worked from $51,780, 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 263 of 476 in the state. The occupation ranks 263 of 476 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 $56,010 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $43,360 and the top tenth $75,560, so most people doing this work in Idaho sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Idaho sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $45,824 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 Idaho's own levy, $41,894 remains.
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 Idaho is $56,010. 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 ($43,360 to $75,560) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Idaho rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Idaho'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 $45,824 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 $41,894 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Idaho 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.