Crane and Tower Operators in Louisiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,881
after federal, FICA and Louisiana tax
Tax takes
$11,289
18.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,462
Louisiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Louisiana — 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
$61,170
Kept after tax
$49,881
Worth in national money
$56,462
State rank
39
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for crane and tower operators is on the low side in Louisiana. The middle earner gets $61,170. That is 39 of 50 states, and about 10.15% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 484 occupations Louisiana reports figures for, this is number 172.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $61,170 you keep $49,881 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $56,462 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $63,380, since top earners drag the number up.
- For crane and tower operators, Louisiana sits in the lower band at $61,170, ranking 39 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 10.15%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- In Louisiana's occupational distribution, crane and tower operators sits at 172 of 484 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Retained pay in Louisiana is $49,881 after the full tax stack, from $61,170. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $56,462 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $63,380 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Crane and Tower Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,370 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,170 |
| Top tenth earn over | $82,620 |
| This salary | $61,170 |
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 Louisiana | $49,881 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,330 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,640 |
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 | $59,367 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,402 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,170 as a midpoint for Louisiana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $45,370 and the ninetieth is $82,620 — 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 Louisiana's $49,881, worked from $61,170. 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 172 of 484.
- Two cautions on $56,462, the adjusted value of that $61,170 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Louisiana. 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 172 of 484 locally.
- The Louisiana median of $61,170 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $45,370 to $82,620. 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 Louisiana take-home of $49,881, on $61,170 for work ranking 172 of 484 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 172 of 484 in the state.
- This $56,462 adjusted figure, worked from $61,170, 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 172 of 484 in the state. The occupation ranks 172 of 484 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 $63,380 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $45,370 at the tenth percentile, $82,620 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Louisiana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $56,462 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Louisiana's own levy, $49,881 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Louisiana is $63,380. 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 ($45,370 to $82,620) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Louisiana rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Louisiana'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 $56,462 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 $49,881 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Louisiana 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.