Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders in New Mexico
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,424
after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax
Tax takes
$11,486
18.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,681
New Mexico costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Mexico — 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
$60,910
Kept after tax
$49,424
Worth in national money
$54,681
State rank
14
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. New Mexico's middle earner gets $60,910, putting the state 14 of 47 — about 4.94% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 206 among 485 occupations New Mexico publishes pay for.
- Here is where New Mexico does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $60,910 you keep $49,424, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $54,681 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $63,230, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For chemical equipment operators and tenders, New Mexico sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $60,910, ranking 14 of 47 and running about 4.94% 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.
- Position 206 of 485 in New Mexico places chemical equipment operators and tenders in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After federal, FICA and New Mexico income tax, retained pay for chemical equipment operators and tenders on $60,910 is $49,424. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $54,681 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $63,230 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,360 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $60,910 |
| Top tenth earn over | $105,800 |
| This salary | $60,910 |
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 New Mexico | $49,424 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,121 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,074 |
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
| To match take-home only | $58,798 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,508 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in New Mexico earn less than $60,910. The published range is $35,360 up to $105,800, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind New Mexico's $49,424, worked from $60,910. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 206 of 485.
- Two cautions on $54,681, the adjusted value of that $60,910 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Mexico. 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 206 of 485 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for chemical equipment operators and tenders in New Mexico the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $35,360 to $105,800. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The New Mexico take-home of $49,424, on $60,910 for work ranking 206 of 485 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 206 of 485 in the state.
- This $54,681 adjusted figure, worked from $60,910, 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 206 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 206 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $63,230, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $35,360 and the top tenth $105,800 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $54,681.
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 New Mexico's own levy, $49,424 remains.
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 47 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 New Mexico is $63,230. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($35,360) and the ninetieth ($105,800) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
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 $54,681 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 $49,424 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.