Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$53,845
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$13,115
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$53,096
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$66,960
Kept after tax
$53,845
Worth in national money
$53,096
State rank
19
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Rhode Island sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $66,960, ranking 19 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 Rhode Island, this sits in the middle: 208 of 452 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $66,960 the take-home is $53,845, which is worth about $53,096 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $74,100, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Rhode Island occupies the middle band for telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers: a median of $66,960, ranking 19 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 208 of 452 occupations in Rhode Island 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.
- Rhode Island's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers on its $66,960 median: $53,845 retained after tax becomes $53,096 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $74,100 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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
| Lowest tenth earn under | $57,300 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $66,960 |
| Top tenth earn over | $95,950 |
| This salary | $66,960 |
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 Rhode Island | $53,845 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $55,936 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,467 |
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 | $64,300 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,459 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $66,960 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $57,300 and the ninetieth is $95,950 — 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 Rhode Island's $53,845, worked from $66,960. 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 208 of 452.
- One number stands for prices across all of Rhode Island, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $53,096, the adjusted value of that $66,960 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 208 of 452 in the state.
- The Rhode Island median of $66,960 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $57,300 to $95,950. 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 Rhode Island take-home of $53,845, on $66,960 for work ranking 208 of 452 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 208 of 452 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Rhode Island, so $53,096 — the adjusted value of that $66,960 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 208 of 452 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 $74,100, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $57,300 at the tenth percentile, $95,950 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Rhode Island costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $53,096 rather than its face figure.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $53,845 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 Rhode Island is $74,100. 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 ($57,300 to $95,950) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $53,096 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $53,845 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.