Civil Engineers in Utah
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$72,641
after federal, FICA and Utah tax
Tax takes
$24,189
25.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$76,463
Utah costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Utah — 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
$96,830
Kept after tax
$72,641
Worth in national money
$76,463
State rank
37
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Utah pays civil engineers a middle wage of $96,830, 37 of 51 states and about 3.98% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Utah. It ranks 75 out of 487 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $96,830 you keep $72,641 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $76,463 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $100,300, since top earners drag the number up.
- Utah's $96,830 median for civil engineers places it 37 of 51 states, about 3.98% 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.
- Within Utah, civil engineers ranks 75 of 487 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Retained pay in Utah is $72,641 after the full tax stack, from $96,830. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $76,463 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $100,300 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Civil Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $62,130 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $96,830 |
| Top tenth earn over | $149,410 |
| This salary | $96,830 |
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 Utah | $72,641 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $76,950 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,724 |
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 | $90,705 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,763 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 95 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $96,830 as a midpoint for Utah, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $62,130 and the ninetieth is $149,410 — 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 Utah's $72,641, worked from $96,830. 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 75 of 487.
- Two cautions on $76,463, the adjusted value of that $96,830 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Utah. 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 75 of 487 locally.
- The Utah median of $96,830 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $62,130 to $149,410. 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 Utah take-home of $72,641, on $96,830 for work ranking 75 of 487 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 75 of 487 in the state.
- This $76,463 adjusted figure, worked from $96,830, 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 75 of 487 in the state. The occupation ranks 75 of 487 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 $100,300, 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 $62,130 and the top tenth $149,410 — 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 $76,463.
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 Utah adds its own income tax on top — which is why $72,641 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 Utah is $100,300. 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 ($62,130) and the ninetieth ($149,410) 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?
Utah'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 $76,463 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 $72,641 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Utah 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.