What Maintenance and Repair Workers, General earn in Milwaukee County, WI
According to the latest federal wage data for the Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI metropolitan area, the median pay for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General in Milwaukee County, WI is $56,320 a year, or $27.08 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $45,549 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Milwaukee County, WI.
The mean wage is $55,690, which is 1.1% below the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 8,270 people working in this occupation across the Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Milwaukee County, WI has roughly 926,331 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General in the Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $36,390 a year ($17.50 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $76,920 or more ($36.98 an hour). That is a gap of $40,530 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $45,880 at the 25th percentile and $64,610 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.1 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 Maintenance and Repair Workers, General in Milwaukee County, WI is $27.08. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $56,320, and the same salary is $4,693 a month before taxes or about $2,166 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $21.90 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Maintenance and Repair Workers, General this way: "Perform work involving the skills of two or more maintenance or craft occupations to keep machines, mechanical equipment, or the structure of a building in repair. Duties may involve pipe fitting; HVAC maintenance; insulating; welding; machining; carpentry; repairing electrical or mechanical equipment; installing, aligning, and balancing new equipment; and repairing buildings, floors, or stairs."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Assemble, install, or repair wiring, electrical or electronic components, pipe systems, plumbing, machinery, or equipment"; "Diagnose mechanical problems and determine how to correct them, checking blueprints, repair manuals, or parts catalogs, as necessary"; "Inspect, operate, or test machinery or equipment to diagnose machine malfunctions"; "Record type and cost of maintenance or repair work".
Job outlook for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 1,621,800 jobs in 2025 to 1,690,500 in 2035, a change of +4.2%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 148,700 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 9.2% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: moderate-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $49,590 for this occupation; the Milwaukee County, WI median of $56,320 is 13.6% above it.
How pay in Milwaukee County, WI compares
Compared with the Wisconsin average
The local median of $56,320 sits below the Wisconsin employment-weighted average of $57,317. The shortfall is $997 a year, or 1.7%, so Milwaukee County, WI is a lower-paying market for this job than the state as a whole. Within Wisconsin, the highest median we track for this job is $60,470 in St. Croix County, WI.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General is $51,159 across the contiguous United States. At $56,320, Milwaukee County, WI pays $5,161 more, which is 10.1% 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 Milwaukee County, WI
Among the 523 occupations with published wages in Milwaukee County, WI, Maintenance and Repair Workers, General ranks number 319 by median pay, ahead of about 39% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $125,490 a year, which is $69,170 more than the median for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $56,320 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 $10,771 a year, which leaves $45,549, or $3,796 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $19 goes to taxes and $81 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 19.1%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $40,570. 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 $4,630, an effective 8.2% 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 $3,492 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $817. FICA totals $4,308, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Wisconsin
Wisconsin income tax on this salary is $1,833 a year, or 3.3% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 40% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $153 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 Milwaukee County, WI
IRS Statistics of Income data for Milwaukee County, WI show an average adjusted gross income of $73,173 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 12.5% across all filers. Filers in the $50,000 to under $75,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 7.7%, compared with the 8.2% 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 Milwaukee County, WI
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Milwaukee County, WI: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $45,549 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Milwaukee County, WI is $1,060 a month, or $12,720 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,263 a month. For Maintenance and Repair Workers, General, a one-bedroom absorbs 27.9% of take-home pay and 22.6% 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 6.1% of gross pay for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General in Milwaukee 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 $19,883 a year, 44% of take-home pay. That leaves $25,666 a year, or $2,139 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 45.6% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Milwaukee County, WI
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee County, WI, set beside the Wisconsin and national medians.
Property taxes in Milwaukee County, WI
Homeowners in Milwaukee County, WI pay a median of $4,444 a year in real estate taxes, 17% above the Wisconsin median of $3,792 and 42% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $230,700, the median tax bill is 1.93% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Maintenance and Repair Workers, General median of $56,320, a tax bill of that size would equal 7.9% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Milwaukee County, WI
Renters in Milwaukee County, WI pay a median gross rent of $1,101 a month in the Census survey, 1% 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 $1,060 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 $230,700, 13% below the Wisconsin median of $266,500. Median household income is $64,435, 17% below the Wisconsin median of $77,485, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 19.7% of that income.
Commuting in Milwaukee County, WI
Workers in Milwaukee County, WI who travel to a workplace spend an average of 22.2 minutes each way, in line with the Wisconsin average of 22.2. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 3.7 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 14.4% of workers in Milwaukee County, WI work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Maintenance and Repair Workers, General afford to live in Milwaukee 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 $56,320 that ceiling is $1,408 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,060 is $348 under it, so rent fits the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $20.38 an hour; the median for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General is $27.08, which is 33% above that mark. Another way to see it: at $21.90 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 11.2 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,263 a month means $632 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $5,142 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $30,808.
How fast you can save
At $2,139 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 5 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 10 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Maintenance and Repair Workers, General pay in Milwaukee County, WI
What is the hourly wage for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General in Milwaukee County, WI?
The median is $27.08 per hour, based on $56,320 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $17.50 at the 10th percentile to $36.98 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General in Milwaukee County, WI?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $56,320 becomes $45,549 a year. That is $3,796 a month, $1,752 every two weeks or $876 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General in Milwaukee County, WI?
Total taxes are $10,771 a year, an effective rate of 19.1%: $4,630 federal income tax, $4,308 FICA and $1,833 Wisconsin income tax.
Is pay for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General in Milwaukee County, WI above the Wisconsin average?
No. The local median of $56,320 is -1.7% versus the Wisconsin average of $57,317, a difference of $997 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Maintenance and Repair Workers, General salary in Milwaukee County, WI?
A one-bedroom costs $1,060 a month against take-home pay of $3,796, which is 27.9% of take-home pay. That meets the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,408 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General in Milwaukee County, WI?
About $2,139 a month ($25,666 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $19,883 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Milwaukee County, WI at the 30% guideline?
$20.38 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $12,720 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Maintenance and Repair Workers, General is $27.08.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Milwaukee-Waukesha, 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.