Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining in Arkansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,028
after federal, FICA and Arkansas tax
Tax takes
$8,142
17.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,959
Arkansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arkansas — 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
$46,170
Kept after tax
$38,028
Worth in national money
$43,959
State rank
49
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Arkansas. The middle earner gets $46,170. That is 49 of 49 states, and about 19.61% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Arkansas, this sits in the middle: 270 of 489 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 $46,170 you keep $38,028 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $43,959 at national prices. Here the average runs under the middle, at $45,080.
- For excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining, Arkansas sits in the lower band at $46,170, ranking 49 of 49 and trailing the national median by about 19.61%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining ranks 270 of 489 occupations in Arkansas 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 Arkansas is $38,028 after the full tax stack, from $46,170. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $43,959 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $45,080 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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Pay band: Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,690 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,170 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,700 |
| This salary | $46,170 |
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 Arkansas | $38,028 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,278 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,539 |
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 | $44,615 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,281 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $46,170 as a midpoint for Arkansas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,690 and the ninetieth is $49,700 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $38,028 take-home in Arkansas comes from $46,170. 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 270 of 489.
- Two cautions on $43,959, the adjusted value of that $46,170 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arkansas. 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 270 of 489 locally.
- The Arkansas median of $46,170 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,690 to $49,700. 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 $38,028, from $46,170, assumes a single Arkansas 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 270 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 49 of 49 for it.
- This $43,959 adjusted figure, worked from $46,170, 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 270 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 270 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $37,690 and the top tenth $49,700, so most people doing this work in Arkansas sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Arkansas is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $43,959 in national terms.
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 Arkansas's own levy, $38,028 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($37,690 to $49,700) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arkansas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Arkansas'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 $43,959 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 $38,028 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arkansas 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.