Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians in North Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,512
after federal, FICA and North Carolina tax
Tax takes
$11,188
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,470
North Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Carolina — 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
$58,700
Kept after tax
$47,512
Worth in national money
$50,470
State rank
41
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. North Carolina pays this job a middle wage of $58,700, 41 of 50 states and about 9.62% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in North Carolina, this sits in the middle: 218 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where North Carolina does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $58,700 you keep $47,512, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $50,470 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $61,110, because the best-paid pull it up.
- North Carolina's $58,700 median for civil engineering technologists and technicians places it 41 of 50 states, about 9.62% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Civil engineering technologists and technicians ranks 218 of 489 occupations in North Carolina 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.
- After federal, FICA and North Carolina income tax, retained pay for civil engineering technologists and technicians on $58,700 is $47,512. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $50,470 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 $61,110 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $44,940 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,740 |
| This salary | $58,700 |
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
| Take-home in North Carolina | $47,512 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,345 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$310 |
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 | $56,418 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$375 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $58,700 as a midpoint for North Carolina, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $44,940 and the ninetieth is $81,740 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind North Carolina's $47,512, worked from $58,700. 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 218 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of North Carolina, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $50,470, the adjusted value of that $58,700 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 218 of 489 in the state.
- The North Carolina median of $58,700 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $44,940 to $81,740. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The North Carolina take-home of $47,512, on $58,700 for work ranking 218 of 489 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 218 of 489 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for North Carolina, so $50,470 — the adjusted value of that $58,700 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 218 of 489 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 $61,110, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $44,940 at the tenth percentile, $81,740 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. North Carolina is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $50,470 in national terms.
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 North Carolina's own levy, $47,512 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 50 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 North Carolina is $61,110. 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 ($44,940 to $81,740) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to North Carolina rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
North Carolina'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 $50,470 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 $47,512 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Carolina 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.