Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installers in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,437
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$10,183
18.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,427
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — 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
$54,620
Kept after tax
$44,437
Worth in national money
$48,427
State rank
41
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Missouri. The middle earner gets $54,620. That is 41 of 51 states, and about 9.07% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Missouri, this sits in the middle: 260 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Missouri is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $54,620 the take-home is $44,437; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $48,427 would nationally. The average comes to $58,040, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For security and fire alarm systems installers, Missouri sits in the lower band at $54,620, ranking 41 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 9.07%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Security and fire alarm systems installers ranks 260 of 488 occupations in Missouri 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 security and fire alarm systems installers in Missouri, on $54,620, is $44,437 — equivalent to $48,427 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 $58,040 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $41,560 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $54,620 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,550 |
| This salary | $54,620 |
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 Missouri | $44,437 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $46,067 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,020 |
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 | $52,592 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,234 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $54,620 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $41,560 and the ninetieth is $75,550 — 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 Missouri's $44,437, worked from $54,620. 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 260 of 488.
- One number stands for prices across all of Missouri, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $48,427, the adjusted value of that $54,620 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 488 in the state.
- The Missouri median of $54,620 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $41,560 to $75,550. 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 Missouri take-home of $44,437, on $54,620 for work ranking 260 of 488 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 260 of 488 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Missouri, so $48,427 — the adjusted value of that $54,620 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 488 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 $58,040 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 — $41,560 at the tenth percentile, $75,550 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $48,427.
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 Missouri's own levy, $44,437 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 Missouri is $58,040. 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 ($41,560 to $75,550) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Missouri rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri'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 $48,427 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 $44,437 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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.