Recreational Therapists in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,796
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$11,554
19.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,340
Wisconsin costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wisconsin — 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
$59,350
Kept after tax
$47,796
Worth in national money
$51,340
State rank
22
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Wisconsin is 22 of 48 states for recreational therapists, with a middle wage of $59,350. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Wisconsin, this sits in the middle: 260 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Wisconsin does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $59,350 you keep $47,796, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $51,340 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $62,180, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Wisconsin ranks 22 of 48 for recreational therapists at $59,350. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Recreational therapists ranks 260 of 491 occupations in Wisconsin 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.
- After federal, FICA and Wisconsin income tax, retained pay for recreational therapists on $59,350 is $47,796. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $51,340 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $62,180 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Recreational Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,650 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,350 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,330 |
| This salary | $59,350 |
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 Wisconsin | $47,796 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,868 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$22 |
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 | $56,771 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$27 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $59,350 as a midpoint for Wisconsin, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,650 and the ninetieth is $81,330 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $47,796 take-home in Wisconsin comes from $59,350. 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 260 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Wisconsin, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $51,340, the adjusted value of that $59,350 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 260 of 491 in the state.
- The Wisconsin median of $59,350 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,650 to $81,330. 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 $47,796, from $59,350, assumes a single Wisconsin 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 260 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 22 of 48 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Wisconsin, so $51,340 — the adjusted value of that $59,350 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 260 of 491 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 $62,180 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $48,650 at the tenth percentile, $81,330 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Wisconsin is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $51,340 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Wisconsin then takes its own share, leaving $47,796.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 Wisconsin is $62,180. 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 ($48,650 to $81,330) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Wisconsin rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Wisconsin'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 $51,340 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 $47,796 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Wisconsin 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.