Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$54,052
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$13,218
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$53,299
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$67,270
Kept after tax
$54,052
Worth in national money
$53,299
State rank
13
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Rhode Island's middle earner gets $67,270, putting the state 13 of 51 — about 8.9% ahead of the national figure.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 452 occupations Rhode Island reports figures for, this is number 207.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $67,270, tax leaves $54,052, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $53,299 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $69,320, since top earners drag the number up.
- For bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists, Rhode Island sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $67,270, ranking 13 of 51 and running about 8.9% 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.
- In Rhode Island's occupational distribution, bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists sits at 207 of 452 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists — median $67,270 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $54,052 retained, $53,299 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $69,320 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $51,020 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $67,270 |
| Top tenth earn over | $85,420 |
| This salary | $67,270 |
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 Rhode Island | $54,052 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $56,154 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,488 |
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 | $64,557 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,523 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $67,270 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $51,020 and the ninetieth is $85,420 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $54,052 take-home in Rhode Island comes from $67,270. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 207 of 452.
- Two cautions on $53,299, the adjusted value of that $67,270 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Rhode Island. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 207 of 452 locally.
- The Rhode Island median of $67,270 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $51,020 to $85,420. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $54,052, from $67,270, assumes a single Rhode Island filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 207 of 452 locally, and the state ranks 13 of 51 for it.
- This $53,299 adjusted figure, worked from $67,270, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 207 of 452 in the state. The occupation ranks 207 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $69,320 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $51,020 and the top tenth $85,420, so most people doing this work in Rhode Island sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Rhode Island run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $53,299 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Rhode Island's own levy, $54,052 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Rhode Island is $69,320. 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 ($51,020 to $85,420) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $53,299 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 $54,052 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.