Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians in South Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,091
after federal, FICA and South Carolina tax
Tax takes
$9,619
17.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,319
South Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South 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
$53,710
Kept after tax
$44,091
Worth in national money
$47,319
State rank
45
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. South Carolina pays this job a middle wage of $53,710, 45 of 50 states and about 17.31% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in South Carolina, this sits in the middle: 246 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- South Carolina is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $53,710 the take-home is $44,091; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $47,319 would nationally. The average comes to $58,440, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- South Carolina's $53,710 median for civil engineering technologists and technicians places it 45 of 50 states, about 17.31% 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 246 of 492 occupations in South 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.
- Post-tax income for civil engineering technologists and technicians in South Carolina, on $53,710, is $44,091 — equivalent to $47,319 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 $58,440 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $41,020 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $53,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,660 |
| This salary | $53,710 |
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 South Carolina | $44,091 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $45,336 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$666 |
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 | $52,160 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$805 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $53,710 as a midpoint for South Carolina, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $41,020 and the ninetieth is $79,660 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $44,091 take-home in South Carolina comes from $53,710. 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 246 of 492.
- Two cautions on $47,319, the adjusted value of that $53,710 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Carolina. 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 246 of 492 locally.
- The South Carolina median of $53,710 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $41,020 to $79,660. 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 $44,091, from $53,710, assumes a single South Carolina 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 246 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 45 of 50 for it.
- This $47,319 adjusted figure, worked from $53,710, 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 246 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 246 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $58,440, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $41,020 at the bottom tenth to $79,660 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 $47,319.
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 South Carolina adds its own income tax on top — which is why $44,091 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 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 South Carolina is $58,440. 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 ($41,020 to $79,660) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Carolina rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South 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 $47,319 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 $44,091 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and South 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.