Carpet Installers in New Mexico

A hard hat, safety glasses and tool belt beside timber house framing.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$43,213

after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax

Tax takes

$9,487

18.0% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$47,810

New Mexico costs less than average

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

$52,700

Kept after tax

$43,213

Worth in national money

$47,810

State rank

18

of 45 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Neither high nor low. New Mexico is 18 of 45 states for carpet installers, with a middle wage of $52,700. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
  • Against other work in New Mexico, this sits in the middle: 255 of 485 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
  • New Mexico is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $52,700 the take-home is $43,213; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $47,810 would nationally. The average lands at $52,690, below the middle of the range.
  • New Mexico ranks 18 of 45 for carpet installers at $52,700. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
  • Carpet installers ranks 255 of 485 occupations in New Mexico by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
  • Post-tax income for carpet installers in New Mexico, on $52,700, is $43,213 — equivalent to $47,810 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $52,690 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Carpet Installers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$34,960
Half earn under$52,700
Top tenth earn over$69,850
This salary$52,700

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

Compare with
+$1,311take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in New Mexico$43,213
Take-home in Texas$44,524
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,991

The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.

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

Moving to
$0$55,108
$55,108in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$51,068
Raise you would need+$2,408
Prices in Texas97 vs 90

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of carpet installers in New Mexico earn under $52,700 and half over. The published range runs $34,960 at the tenth percentile to $69,850 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • That $43,213 take-home in New Mexico comes from $52,700. 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 255 of 485.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $47,810 uses one figure for the whole of New Mexico. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 485 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 255.
  • Figures are distribution medians for carpet installers in New Mexico, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $34,960 to $69,850; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
  • Retained pay of $43,213, from $52,700, assumes a single New Mexico 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 255 of 485 locally, and the state ranks 18 of 45 for it.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $47,810, worked from $52,700, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular New Mexico address, on work sitting at 255 of 485 locally.

Questions people ask

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $34,960 at the bottom tenth to $69,850 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $47,810.

Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?

Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and New Mexico adds its own income tax on top — which is why $43,213 of this wage survives to your account.

Why is this job missing from some states?

Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 45 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($34,960 to $69,850) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Mexico rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

New Mexico's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $47,810 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.

What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?

Take-home of $43,213 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Mexico 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.

Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?

BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.