Crane and Tower Operators in Idaho
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,637
after federal, FICA and Idaho tax
Tax takes
$10,133
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,636
Idaho costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Idaho — 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
$52,770
Kept after tax
$42,637
Worth in national money
$46,636
State rank
49
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Idaho pays crane and tower operators a middle wage of $52,770, 49 of 50 states and about 22.49% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Idaho, this sits in the middle: 250 of 476 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $52,770 you keep $42,637 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $46,636 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $65,560, since top earners drag the number up.
- Idaho's $52,770 median for crane and tower operators places it 49 of 50 states, about 22.49% 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.
- Crane and tower operators ranks 250 of 476 occupations in Idaho 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.
- Retained pay in Idaho is $42,637 after the full tax stack, from $52,770. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $46,636 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $65,560 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Crane and Tower Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,970 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $52,770 |
| Top tenth earn over | $104,240 |
| This salary | $52,770 |
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 Idaho | $42,637 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $44,581 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$760 |
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 | $50,351 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$919 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $52,770 as a midpoint for Idaho, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $46,970 and the ninetieth is $104,240 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $42,637 take-home in Idaho comes from $52,770. 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 250 of 476.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $46,636 uses one figure for the whole of Idaho. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 476 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 250.
- The Idaho median of $52,770 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $46,970 to $104,240. 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 $42,637, from $52,770, assumes a single Idaho 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 250 of 476 locally, and the state ranks 49 of 50 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $46,636, worked from $52,770, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Idaho address, on work sitting at 250 of 476 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $65,560 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $46,970 and the top tenth $104,240 — 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 $46,636.
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 Idaho adds its own income tax on top — which is why $42,637 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 Idaho is $65,560. 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 ($46,970) and the ninetieth ($104,240) 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?
Idaho'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 $46,636 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 $42,637 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Idaho 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.