Surveyors in South Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,160
after federal, FICA and South Carolina tax
Tax takes
$12,140
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,907
South Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Carolina — 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
$63,300
Kept after tax
$51,160
Worth in national money
$54,907
State rank
41
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. South Carolina pays surveyors a middle wage of $63,300, 41 of 50 states and about 16.09% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Surveyors ranks 172 among 492 occupations South Carolina publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $63,300 you keep $51,160 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $54,907 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $70,580, since top earners drag the number up.
- South Carolina's $63,300 median for surveyors places it 41 of 50 states, about 16.09% 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.
- Position 172 of 492 in South Carolina places surveyors in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Retained pay in South Carolina is $51,160 after the full tax stack, from $63,300. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $54,907 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $70,580 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 | $44,710 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,300 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,360 |
| This salary | $63,300 |
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 Carolina | $51,160 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,042 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$323 |
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 | $60,959 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$391 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $63,300 as a midpoint for South Carolina, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $44,710 and the ninetieth is $100,360 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In South Carolina the take-home figure of $51,160, from $63,300, 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 172 of 492 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $54,907, the adjusted value of that $63,300 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Carolina. 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 172 of 492 locally.
- The South Carolina median of $63,300 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $44,710 to $100,360. 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 South Carolina is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $51,160 from $63,300. 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 172 of 492 locally.
- This $54,907 adjusted figure, worked from $63,300, 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 172 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 172 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $70,580, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $44,710 and the top tenth $100,360 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. South Carolina is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $54,907 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 South Carolina's own levy, $51,160 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 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 Carolina is $70,580. 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 ($44,710) and the ninetieth ($100,360) 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 Carolina'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 $54,907 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 $51,160 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and South Carolina 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.