What Cashiers earn in Dane County, WI
According to the latest federal wage data for the Madison, WI metropolitan area, the median pay for Cashiers in Dane County, WI is $34,550 a year, or $16.61 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $29,129 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Dane County, WI.
The mean wage is $33,940, which is 1.8% below the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 7,960 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 Cashiers in the Madison, WI metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $25,730 a year ($12.37 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $40,300 or more ($19.38 an hour). That is a gap of $14,570 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $29,320 at the 25th percentile and $37,500 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.6 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 Cashiers in Dane County, WI is $16.61. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $34,550, and the same salary is $2,879 a month before taxes or about $1,329 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $14.00 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Cashiers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Cashiers this way: "Receive and disburse money in establishments other than financial institutions. May use electronic scanners, cash registers, or related equipment. May process credit or debit card transactions and validate checks."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Receive payment by cash, check, credit cards, vouchers, or automatic debits"; "Issue receipts, refunds, credits, or change due to customers"; "Greet customers entering establishments"; "Establish or identify prices of goods, services, or admission, and tabulate bills, using calculators, cash registers, or optical price scanners".
Job outlook for Cashiers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to shrink from 3,106,300 jobs in 2025 to 2,905,700 in 2035, a change of -6.5%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 521,300 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 16.8% 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 $32,880 for this occupation; the Dane County, WI median of $34,550 is 5.1% 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 Cashiers is $32,677; the local median of $34,550 beats it by $1,873, or 5.7%. Within Wisconsin, the highest median we track for this job is $35,760 in St. Croix County, WI.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Cashiers is $32,032 across the contiguous United States. At $34,550, Dane County, WI pays $2,518 more, which is 7.9% 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, Cashiers ranks number 465 by median pay, ahead of about 3% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Registered Nurses at $101,190 a year, which is $66,640 more than the median for Cashiers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $34,550 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 $5,421 a year, which leaves $29,129, or $2,427 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 15.7%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $18,800. 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 $2,018, an effective 5.8% 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 $2,142 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $501. FICA totals $2,643, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Wisconsin
Wisconsin income tax on this salary is $761 a year, or 2.2% 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 $63 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 5.8% 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 $29,129 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 Cashiers, a one-bedroom absorbs 56.6% of take-home pay and 47.8% 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 9.9% of gross pay for Cashiers 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, 81% of take-home pay. That leaves $5,466 a year, or $455 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 15.8% 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 Cashiers median of $34,550, a tax bill of that size would equal 18.6% 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 Cashiers 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 $34,550 that ceiling is $864 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,375 is $511 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 Cashiers is $16.61, which is 37% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $14.00 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 22.7 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 $12,576.
How fast you can save
At $455 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 22 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 44 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Cashiers pay in Dane County, WI
What is the hourly wage for Cashiers in Dane County, WI?
The median is $16.61 per hour, based on $34,550 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $12.37 at the 10th percentile to $19.38 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Cashiers in Dane County, WI?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $34,550 becomes $29,129 a year. That is $2,427 a month, $1,120 every two weeks or $560 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Cashiers in Dane County, WI?
Total taxes are $5,421 a year, an effective rate of 15.7%: $2,018 federal income tax, $2,643 FICA and $761 Wisconsin income tax.
Is pay for Cashiers in Dane County, WI above the Wisconsin average?
Yes. The local median of $34,550 is +5.7% versus the Wisconsin average of $32,677, a difference of $1,873 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Cashiers salary in Dane County, WI?
A one-bedroom costs $1,375 a month against take-home pay of $2,427, which is 56.6% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $864 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Cashiers in Dane County, WI?
About $455 a month ($5,466 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 Cashiers is $16.61.
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.