Crane and Tower Operators in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$88,197
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$36,063
29.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$81,206
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$124,260
Kept after tax
$88,197
Worth in national money
$81,206
State rank
1
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for crane and tower operators is strong here. Hawaii's middle earner gets $124,260, putting the state 1 of 50 — about 82.52% ahead of the national figure.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Hawaii. It ranks 35 out of 437 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Hawaii is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $124,260 the take-home is $88,197; in national-average money that behaves like $81,206. The average lands at $119,300, below the middle of the range.
- For crane and tower operators, Hawaii sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $124,260, ranking 1 of 50 and running about 82.52% 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.
- Within Hawaii, crane and tower operators ranks 35 of 437 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.
- Take-home for crane and tower operators in Hawaii, on $124,260, is $88,197; deflated by the state's price level, $81,206. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $119,300 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Crane and Tower Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $96,640 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $124,260 |
| Top tenth earn over | $131,220 |
| This salary | $124,260 |
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 Hawaii | $88,197 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $96,198 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$17,788 |
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 | $112,818 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$24,641 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
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 crane and tower operators in Hawaii earn under $124,260 and half over. The published range runs $96,640 at the tenth percentile to $131,220 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Hawaii the take-home figure of $88,197, from $124,260, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 35 of 437 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $81,206, the adjusted value of that $124,260 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Hawaii. 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 35 of 437 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for crane and tower operators in Hawaii, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $96,640 to $131,220; 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.
- Take-home for Hawaii is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $88,197 from $124,260. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 35 of 437 locally.
- This $81,206 adjusted figure, worked from $124,260, 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 35 of 437 in the state. The occupation ranks 35 of 437 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $119,300, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $96,640 and the top tenth $131,220, so most people doing this work in Hawaii sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Hawaii costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $81,206 rather than its face figure.
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 Hawaii's own levy, $88,197 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 Hawaii is $119,300. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($96,640 to $131,220) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Hawaii rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $81,206 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $88,197 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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.