Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairers in Louisiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,290
after federal, FICA and Louisiana tax
Tax takes
$8,480
17.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,605
Louisiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Louisiana — 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
$48,770
Kept after tax
$40,290
Worth in national money
$45,605
State rank
51
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Louisiana. The middle earner gets $48,770. That is 51 of 51 states, and about 34.39% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Louisiana, this sits in the middle: 273 of 484 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 $48,770 you keep $40,290 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $45,605 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $56,420, since top earners drag the number up.
- For telecommunications line installers and repairers, Louisiana sits in the lower band at $48,770, ranking 51 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 34.39%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Telecommunications line installers and repairers ranks 273 of 484 occupations in Louisiana 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 Louisiana is $40,290 after the full tax stack, from $48,770. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $45,605 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $56,420 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,070 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,770 |
| Top tenth earn over | $91,920 |
| This salary | $48,770 |
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 Louisiana | $40,290 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,367 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,036 |
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 | $47,430 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,672 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of telecommunications line installers and repairers in Louisiana earn under $48,770 and half over. The published range runs $38,070 at the tenth percentile to $91,920 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Louisiana the take-home figure of $40,290, from $48,770, 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 273 of 484 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $45,605, the adjusted value of that $48,770 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Louisiana. 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 273 of 484 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for telecommunications line installers and repairers in Louisiana, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $38,070 to $91,920; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Louisiana is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $40,290 from $48,770. 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 273 of 484 locally.
- This $45,605 adjusted figure, worked from $48,770, 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 273 of 484 in the state. The occupation ranks 273 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $56,420 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $38,070, the highest tenth $91,920, 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 $45,605.
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 Louisiana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $40,290 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 Louisiana is $56,420. 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 ($38,070) and the ninetieth ($91,920) 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?
Louisiana'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 $45,605 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 $40,290 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Louisiana 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.