What Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers earn in Broward County, FL
According to the latest federal wage data for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL metropolitan area, the median pay for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers in Broward County, FL is $58,040 a year, or $27.90 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare (and no state income tax), the paycheck shrinks to $48,764 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Broward County, FL.
The mean wage is $60,000, which is 3.4% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 9,140 people working in this occupation across the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Broward County, FL has roughly 1,977,129 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $39,520 a year ($19.00 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $80,220 or more ($38.57 an hour). That is a gap of $40,700 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $48,440 at the 25th percentile and $72,580 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.0 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 Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers in Broward County, FL is $27.90. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $58,040, and the same salary is $4,837 a month before taxes or about $2,232 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $23.44 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers this way: "Install or repair heating, central air conditioning, HVAC, or refrigeration systems, including oil burners, hot-air furnaces, and heating stoves."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Test electrical circuits or components for continuity, using electrical test equipment"; "Repair or replace defective equipment, components, or wiring"; "Discuss heating or cooling system malfunctions with users to isolate problems or to verify that repairs corrected malfunctions"; "Connect heating or air conditioning equipment to fuel, water, or refrigerant source to form complete circuit".
Job outlook for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 440,900 jobs in 2025 to 489,100 in 2035, a change of +10.9%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 40,600 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 9.2% of current employment each year. About 6.3% of the people in this occupation are self-employed, and wage figures cover wage and salary workers only.
Typical entry-level education: postsecondary nondegree award. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: long-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $61,010 for this occupation; the Broward County, FL median of $58,040 is 4.9% below it.
How pay in Broward County, FL compares
Compared with the Florida average
Broward County, FL pays above the state benchmark. The Florida employment-weighted average for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers is $55,066; the local median of $58,040 beats it by $2,974, or 5.4%. Within Florida, Broward County, FL already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers is $62,470 across the contiguous United States. At $58,040, Broward County, FL pays $4,430 less, which is 7.1% below 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 Broward County, FL
Among the 572 occupations with published wages in Broward County, FL, Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers ranks number 284 by median pay, ahead of about 50% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $169,600 a year, which is $111,560 more than the median for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $58,040 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 $9,276 a year, which leaves $48,764, or $4,064 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 $42,290. 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 $4,836, an effective 8.3% 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 $3,598 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $842. FICA totals $4,440, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Florida
There is no state income tax on wages in Florida, which means Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers in Broward County, FL keep the full $48,764 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $2,902 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $242 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Broward County, FL
IRS Statistics of Income data for Broward County, FL show an average adjusted gross income of $95,423 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 16.4% across all filers. Filers in the $50,000 to under $75,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 7.3%, compared with the 8.3% 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 Broward County, FL
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Broward County, FL: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $48,764 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Broward County, FL is $1,902 a month, or $22,824 a year. A two-bedroom costs $2,321 a month. For Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers, a one-bedroom absorbs 46.8% of take-home pay and 39.3% 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 5.9% of gross pay for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers in Broward County, FL. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Florida residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,494 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $1,005, for $2,498 in total. Gasoline in Florida averages $3.08 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,427.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $30,186 a year, 62% of take-home pay. That leaves $18,578 a year, or $1,548 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 32.0% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Broward County, FL
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Broward County, FL: 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 Broward County, FL, set beside the Florida and national medians.
Property taxes in Broward County, FL
Homeowners in Broward County, FL pay a median of $3,890 a year in real estate taxes, 42% above the Florida median of $2,730 and 25% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $414,600, the median tax bill is 0.94% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers median of $58,040, a tax bill of that size would equal 6.7% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Broward County, FL
Renters in Broward County, FL pay a median gross rent of $1,907 a month in the Census survey, 14% above the Florida median of $1,669. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,902 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 $414,600, 15% above the Florida median of $359,000. Median household income is $77,633, 4% above the Florida median of $74,568, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 29.4% of that income.
Commuting in Broward County, FL
Workers in Broward County, FL who travel to a workplace spend an average of 29.1 minutes each way, 4% above the Florida average of 28.0. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.8 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 14.7% of workers in Broward County, FL work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers afford to live in Broward County, FL?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $58,040 that ceiling is $1,451 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,902 is $451 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $36.58 an hour; the median for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers is $27.90, which is 24% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $23.44 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 18.7 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,321 a month means $1,161 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $8,898 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $27,476.
How fast you can save
At $1,548 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 7 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 14 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers pay in Broward County, FL
What is the hourly wage for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers in Broward County, FL?
The median is $27.90 per hour, based on $58,040 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $19.00 at the 10th percentile to $38.57 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers in Broward County, FL?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $58,040 becomes $48,764 a year. That is $4,064 a month, $1,876 every two weeks or $938 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers in Broward County, FL?
Total taxes are $9,276 a year, an effective rate of 16.0%: $4,836 federal income tax, $4,440 FICA and no Florida income tax.
Is pay for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers in Broward County, FL above the Florida average?
Yes. The local median of $58,040 is +5.4% versus the Florida average of $55,066, a difference of $2,974 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers salary in Broward County, FL?
A one-bedroom costs $1,902 a month against take-home pay of $4,064, which is 46.8% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,451 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers in Broward County, FL?
About $1,548 a month ($18,578 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $30,186 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Broward County, FL at the 30% guideline?
$36.58 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $22,824 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers is $27.90.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL 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 Florida 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.