Public Safety Telecommunicators in Oklahoma
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,937
after federal, FICA and Oklahoma tax
Tax takes
$6,953
17.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,307
Oklahoma costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Oklahoma — 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
$39,890
Kept after tax
$32,937
Worth in national money
$37,307
State rank
47
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Oklahoma is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $39,890, ranking 47 of 51 states — about 24.79% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Oklahoma, this sits in the middle: 367 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Oklahoma is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $39,890 the take-home is $32,937; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $37,307 would nationally. The average comes to $43,080, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Oklahoma ranks 47 of 51 for public safety telecommunicators, with a median of $39,890 — about 24.79% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Public safety telecommunicators ranks 367 of 492 occupations in Oklahoma 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.
- Post-tax income for public safety telecommunicators in Oklahoma, on $39,890, is $32,937 — equivalent to $37,307 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 $43,080 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 | $29,760 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,890 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,490 |
| This salary | $39,890 |
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 Oklahoma | $32,937 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,232 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,080 |
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 | $38,279 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,516 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Oklahoma earn less than $39,890. The published range is $29,760 up to $61,490, 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 Oklahoma's $32,937, worked from $39,890. 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 367 of 492.
- Two cautions on $37,307, the adjusted value of that $39,890 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Oklahoma. 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 367 of 492 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for public safety telecommunicators in Oklahoma the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $29,760 to $61,490. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Oklahoma take-home of $32,937, on $39,890 for work ranking 367 of 492 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 367 of 492 in the state.
- This $37,307 adjusted figure, worked from $39,890, 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 367 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 367 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $43,080, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $29,760, the highest tenth $61,490, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Oklahoma sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $37,307 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 Oklahoma adds its own income tax on top — which is why $32,937 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 Oklahoma is $43,080. 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 ($29,760) and the ninetieth ($61,490) 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?
Oklahoma'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 $37,307 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 $32,937 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Oklahoma 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.