Surveyors in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,745
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$16,345
21.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$68,432
Iowa costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Iowa — 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
$77,090
Kept after tax
$60,745
Worth in national money
$68,432
State rank
21
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Iowa is 21 of 50 states for surveyors, with a middle wage of $77,090. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Iowa, this sits in the middle: 126 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $77,090 you keep $60,745 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $68,432 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $86,740, since top earners drag the number up.
- Iowa ranks 21 of 50 for surveyors at $77,090. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Surveyors ranks 126 of 493 occupations in Iowa 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.
- Retained pay in Iowa is $60,745 after the full tax stack, from $77,090. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $68,432 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $86,740 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Surveyors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,830 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $77,090 |
| Top tenth earn over | $129,670 |
| This salary | $77,090 |
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 Iowa | $60,745 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,063 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,536 |
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 | $73,796 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,884 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of surveyors in Iowa earn under $77,090 and half over. The published range runs $47,830 at the tenth percentile to $129,670 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $60,745 take-home in Iowa comes from $77,090. 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 126 of 493.
- Two cautions on $68,432, the adjusted value of that $77,090 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Iowa. 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 126 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for surveyors in Iowa, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $47,830 to $129,670; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $60,745, from $77,090, assumes a single Iowa 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 126 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 21 of 50 for it.
- This $68,432 adjusted figure, worked from $77,090, 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 126 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 126 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $86,740, 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 $47,830, the highest tenth $129,670, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Iowa is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $68,432 in national terms.
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 Iowa's own levy, $60,745 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 Iowa is $86,740. 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 ($47,830) and the ninetieth ($129,670) 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?
Iowa'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 $68,432 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 $60,745 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Iowa 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.