What Retail Salespersons earn in Dane County, WI
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $35,830: the median annual pay for Retail Salespersons in Dane County, WI. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $17.23 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Madison, WI metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $37,950, which is 5.9% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 8,330 people working in this occupation across the Madison, WI metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Dane County, WI has roughly 572,674 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Retail Salespersons in the Madison, WI metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $28,310 a year ($13.61 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $49,190 or more ($23.65 an hour). That is a gap of $20,880 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $30,030 at the 25th percentile and $38,970 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.7 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Retail Salespersons in Dane County, WI is $17.23. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $35,830, and the same salary is $2,986 a month before taxes or about $1,378 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $14.47 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Retail Salespersons
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Retail Salespersons this way: "Sell merchandise, such as furniture, motor vehicles, appliances, or apparel to consumers."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Greet customers and ascertain what each customer wants or needs"; "Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices"; "Compute sales prices, total purchases, and receive and process cash or credit payment"; "Watch for and recognize security risks and thefts and know how to prevent or handle these situations".
Job outlook for Retail Salespersons
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to shrink from 3,998,100 jobs in 2025 to 3,984,100 in 2035, a change of -0.3%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 520,600 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 13.0% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: no formal educational credential. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $35,410 for this occupation; the Dane County, WI median of $35,830 is 1.2% above it.
How pay in Dane County, WI compares
Compared with the Wisconsin average
Dane County, WI pays above the state benchmark. The Wisconsin employment-weighted average for Retail Salespersons is $35,359; the local median of $35,830 beats it by $471, or 1.3%. Within Wisconsin, the highest median we track for this job is $36,670 in St. Croix County, WI.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Retail Salespersons is $34,080 across the contiguous United States. At $35,830, Dane County, WI pays $1,750 more, which is 5.1% above that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Dane County, WI
Among the 480 occupations with published wages in Dane County, WI, Retail Salespersons ranks number 461 by median pay, ahead of about 4% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Registered Nurses at $101,190 a year, which is $65,360 more than the median for Retail Salespersons.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $35,830 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $5,729 a year, which leaves $30,101, or $2,508 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $16 goes to taxes and $84 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 16.0%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $20,080. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $2,171, an effective 6.1% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $2,221 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $520. FICA totals $2,741, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Wisconsin
Wisconsin income tax on this salary is $817 a year, or 2.3% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 38% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $68 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Dane County, WI
IRS Statistics of Income data for Dane County, WI show an average adjusted gross income of $107,406 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 14.5% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.9%, compared with the 6.1% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Dane County, WI
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Dane County, WI: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $30,101 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Dane County, WI is $1,375 a month, or $16,500 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,565 a month. For Retail Salespersons, a one-bedroom absorbs 54.8% of take-home pay and 46.0% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 9.6% of gross pay for Retail Salespersons in Dane County, WI. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Wisconsin residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,816 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $393, for $2,209 in total. Gasoline in Wisconsin averages $3.28 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,518.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $23,663 a year, 79% of take-home pay. That leaves $6,438 a year, or $537 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 18.0% of gross pay, a workable but modest cushion.
Local housing and commute data for Dane County, WI
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Dane County, WI: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Dane County, WI, set beside the Wisconsin and national medians.
Property taxes in Dane County, WI
Homeowners in Dane County, WI pay a median of $6,420 a year in real estate taxes, 69% above the Wisconsin median of $3,792 and 106% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $394,800, the median tax bill is 1.63% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Retail Salespersons median of $35,830, a tax bill of that size would equal 17.9% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Dane County, WI
Renters in Dane County, WI pay a median gross rent of $1,398 a month in the Census survey, 29% above the Wisconsin median of $1,087. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,375 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $394,800, 48% above the Wisconsin median of $266,500. Median household income is $89,975, 16% above the Wisconsin median of $77,485, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 18.3% of that income.
Commuting in Dane County, WI
Workers in Dane County, WI who travel to a workplace spend an average of 20.6 minutes each way, 7% below the Wisconsin average of 22.2. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 3.4 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 20.0% of workers in Dane County, WI work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Retail Salespersons afford to live in Dane County, WI?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $35,830 that ceiling is $896 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,375 is $479 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $26.44 an hour; the median for Retail Salespersons is $17.23, which is 35% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $14.47 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 21.9 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,565 a month means $783 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $7,110 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $13,548.
How fast you can save
At $537 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 19 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 38 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Retail Salespersons pay in Dane County, WI
What is the hourly wage for Retail Salespersons in Dane County, WI?
The median is $17.23 per hour, based on $35,830 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $13.61 at the 10th percentile to $23.65 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Retail Salespersons in Dane County, WI?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $35,830 becomes $30,101 a year. That is $2,508 a month, $1,158 every two weeks or $579 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Retail Salespersons in Dane County, WI?
Total taxes are $5,729 a year, an effective rate of 16.0%: $2,171 federal income tax, $2,741 FICA and $817 Wisconsin income tax.
Is pay for Retail Salespersons in Dane County, WI above the Wisconsin average?
Yes. The local median of $35,830 is +1.3% versus the Wisconsin average of $35,359, a difference of $471 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Retail Salespersons salary in Dane County, WI?
A one-bedroom costs $1,375 a month against take-home pay of $2,508, which is 54.8% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $896 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Retail Salespersons in Dane County, WI?
About $537 a month ($6,438 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $23,663 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Dane County, WI at the 30% guideline?
$26.44 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $16,500 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Retail Salespersons is $17.23.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Madison, WI metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Wisconsin rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.