Recreational Vehicle Service Technicians in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,175
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$5,645
14.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,794
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$39,820
Kept after tax
$34,175
Worth in national money
$38,794
State rank
44
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. South Dakota pays this job a middle wage of $39,820, 44 of 45 states and about 23.42% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within South Dakota this is lower-paid work. Of 457 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 378. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- South Dakota is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $39,820 the take-home is $34,175; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $38,794 would nationally. The average comes to $48,400, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- South Dakota's $39,820 median for recreational vehicle service technicians places it 44 of 45 states, about 23.42% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation South Dakota reports, recreational vehicle service technicians ranks 378 of 457, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Post-tax income for recreational vehicle service technicians in South Dakota, on $39,820, is $34,175 — equivalent to $38,794 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 $48,400 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Recreational Vehicle Service Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,860 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,820 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,090 |
| This salary | $39,820 |
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 South Dakota | $34,175 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,175 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,625 |
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 | $39,820 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,384 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $39,820 as a midpoint for South Dakota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $30,860 and the ninetieth is $79,090 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $34,175 take-home in South Dakota comes from $39,820. 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 378 of 457.
- Two cautions on $38,794, the adjusted value of that $39,820 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Dakota. 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 378 of 457 locally.
- The South Dakota median of $39,820 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $30,860 to $79,090. 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 $34,175, from $39,820, assumes a single South Dakota 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 378 of 457 locally, and the state ranks 44 of 45 for it.
- This $38,794 adjusted figure, worked from $39,820, 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 378 of 457 in the state. The occupation ranks 378 of 457 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 $48,400 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $30,860, the highest tenth $79,090, 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 South Dakota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $38,794 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $34,175 of this wage reaches your account, because South Dakota takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
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 South Dakota is $48,400. 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 ($30,860) and the ninetieth ($79,090) 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?
South Dakota'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 $38,794 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?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $34,175 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.
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.