Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers in Idaho

Wrenches, screwdrivers and gloves on an organized repair workbench.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$49,895

after federal, FICA and Idaho tax

Tax takes

$12,545

20.1% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$54,574

Idaho costs less than average

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

$62,440

Kept after tax

$49,895

Worth in national money

$54,574

State rank

31

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Idaho sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $62,440, ranking 31 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
  • Against other work in Idaho, this sits in the middle: 178 of 476 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 $62,440 you keep $49,895 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $54,574 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $64,950, since top earners drag the number up.
  • Idaho occupies the middle band for telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers: a median of $62,440, ranking 31 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
  • Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers ranks 178 of 476 occupations in Idaho 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 Idaho is $49,895 after the full tax stack, from $62,440. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $54,574 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $64,950 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$41,630
Half earn under$62,440
Top tenth earn over$83,990
This salary$62,440

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

Compare with
+$2,456take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Idaho$49,895
Take-home in Texas$52,351
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$702

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

Moving to
$0$63,289
$63,289in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$59,383
Raise you would need+$849
Prices in Texas97 vs 91

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Half the people doing this work in Idaho earn less than $62,440. The published range is $41,630 up to $83,990, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Idaho's $49,895, worked from $62,440. 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 178 of 476.
  • One number stands for prices across all of Idaho, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $54,574, the adjusted value of that $62,440 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 178 of 476 in the state.
  • Reported values are medians; for telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers in Idaho the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $41,630 to $83,990. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • The Idaho take-home of $49,895, on $62,440 for work ranking 178 of 476 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 178 of 476 in the state.
  • Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Idaho, so $54,574 — the adjusted value of that $62,440 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 178 of 476 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $64,950, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $41,630 at the tenth percentile, $83,990 at the ninetieth.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

Further than the number implies. Idaho is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $54,574 in national terms.

Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?

Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Idaho adds its own income tax on top — which is why $49,895 of this wage survives to your account.

Can I compare this job across every state?

This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.

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 Idaho is $64,950. 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 ($41,630 to $83,990) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Idaho rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Idaho'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 $54,574 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 $49,895 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Idaho 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.