Surveyors in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$59,929
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$16,021
21.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,466
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$75,950
Kept after tax
$59,929
Worth in national money
$61,466
State rank
27
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Pennsylvania pays surveyors around $75,950 at the midpoint, 27 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Pennsylvania, this sits in the middle: 147 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $75,950, tax leaves $59,929, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $61,466 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $80,270, since top earners drag the number up.
- For surveyors the Pennsylvania median is $75,950, ranking 27 of 50 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Surveyors ranks 147 of 492 occupations in Pennsylvania 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.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for surveyors — median $75,950 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $59,929 retained, $61,466 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $80,270 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 | $52,160 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $75,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $115,450 |
| This salary | $75,950 |
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 Pennsylvania | $59,929 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $62,261 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,605 |
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 | $72,636 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,598 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $75,950 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $52,160 and the ninetieth is $115,450 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Pennsylvania the take-home figure of $59,929, from $75,950, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 147 of 492 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $61,466 uses one figure for the whole of Pennsylvania. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 492 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 147.
- The Pennsylvania median of $75,950 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $52,160 to $115,450. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Pennsylvania is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $59,929 from $75,950. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 147 of 492 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $61,466, worked from $75,950, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Pennsylvania address, on work sitting at 147 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 $80,270, 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 $52,160, the highest tenth $115,450, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $61,466.
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 Pennsylvania's own levy, $59,929 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 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 Pennsylvania is $80,270. 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 ($52,160) and the ninetieth ($115,450) 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?
Pennsylvania'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 $61,466 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 $59,929 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.