Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairers in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$76,728
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$26,682
25.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$70,889
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$103,410
Kept after tax
$76,728
Worth in national money
$70,889
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Massachusetts's middle earner gets $103,410, putting the state 2 of 51 — about 39.12% ahead of the national figure.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Massachusetts. It ranks 99 out of 485 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Massachusetts is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $103,410 the take-home is $76,728; in national-average money that behaves like $70,889. The average lands at $91,700, below the middle of the range.
- For telecommunications line installers and repairers, Massachusetts sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $103,410, ranking 2 of 51 and running about 39.12% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Within Massachusetts, telecommunications line installers and repairers ranks 99 of 485 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Take-home for telecommunications line installers and repairers in Massachusetts, on $103,410, is $76,728; deflated by the state's price level, $70,889. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $91,700 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $56,640 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $103,410 |
| Top tenth earn over | $108,790 |
| This salary | $103,410 |
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 Massachusetts | $76,728 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $81,579 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$13,062 |
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 | $96,515 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$18,043 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $103,410 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $56,640 and the ninetieth is $108,790 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Massachusetts the take-home figure of $76,728, from $103,410, 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 99 of 485 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $70,889 uses one figure for the whole of Massachusetts. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 485 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 99.
- The Massachusetts median of $103,410 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $56,640 to $108,790. 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 Massachusetts is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $76,728 from $103,410. 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 99 of 485 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $70,889, worked from $103,410, 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 Massachusetts address, on work sitting at 99 of 485 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 $91,700, 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 — $56,640 at the tenth percentile, $108,790 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $70,889 of national purchasing power.
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 Massachusetts adds its own income tax on top — which is why $76,728 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 Massachusetts is $91,700. 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 ($56,640 to $108,790) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Massachusetts rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $70,889 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 $76,728 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.