Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,856
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$11,914
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,478
Wisconsin costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wisconsin — 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
$60,770
Kept after tax
$48,856
Worth in national money
$52,478
State rank
42
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Wisconsin pays this job a middle wage of $60,770, 42 of 51 states and about 4.88% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Wisconsin, this sits in the middle: 244 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Wisconsin does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $60,770 you keep $48,856, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $52,478 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $63,780, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Wisconsin's $60,770 median for telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers places it 42 of 51 states, about 4.88% 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.
- Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers ranks 244 of 491 occupations in Wisconsin 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.
- After federal, FICA and Wisconsin income tax, retained pay for telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers on $60,770 is $48,856. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $52,478 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $63,780 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 | $48,780 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $60,770 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,960 |
| This salary | $60,770 |
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 Wisconsin | $48,856 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,009 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$13 |
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 | $58,090 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$16 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $60,770 as a midpoint for Wisconsin, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,780 and the ninetieth is $81,960 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $48,856 take-home in Wisconsin comes from $60,770. 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 244 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $52,478 uses one figure for the whole of Wisconsin. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 244.
- The Wisconsin median of $60,770 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,780 to $81,960. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $48,856, from $60,770, assumes a single Wisconsin 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 244 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 42 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $52,478, worked from $60,770, 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 Wisconsin address, on work sitting at 244 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $63,780, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $48,780 at the bottom tenth to $81,960 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $52,478.
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 Wisconsin adds its own income tax on top — which is why $48,856 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 Wisconsin is $63,780. 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 ($48,780 to $81,960) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Wisconsin rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Wisconsin'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 $52,478 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 $48,856 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Wisconsin 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.