Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,687
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$18,913
23.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,402
Illinois costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Illinois — 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
$80,600
Kept after tax
$61,687
Worth in national money
$62,402
State rank
2
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Illinois's middle earner gets $80,600, putting the state 2 of 49 — about 40.34% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Illinois, this sits in the middle: 135 of 494 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Illinois costs about what the country costs, so from $80,600, take-home of $61,687 is worth roughly $62,402 in national money. The average lands at $73,360, below the middle of the range.
- For excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining, Illinois sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $80,600, ranking 2 of 49 and running about 40.34% 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.
- Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining ranks 135 of 494 occupations in Illinois 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.
- Price parity in Illinois is near the national base, so for excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining, whose median is $80,600, the adjusted figure of $62,402 differs little from $61,687 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $73,360 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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: Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,130 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $80,600 |
| Top tenth earn over | $93,290 |
| This salary | $80,600 |
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 Illinois | $61,687 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,532 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,036 |
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 | $75,135 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,956 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
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 excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining in Illinois earn under $80,600 and half over. The published range runs $46,130 at the tenth percentile to $93,290 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Illinois the take-home figure of $61,687, from $80,600, 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 135 of 494 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $62,402, the adjusted value of that $80,600 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Illinois. 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 135 of 494 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining in Illinois, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $46,130 to $93,290; 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 Illinois is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $61,687 from $80,600. 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 135 of 494 locally.
- This $62,402 adjusted figure, worked from $80,600, 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 135 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 135 of 494 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 $73,360, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $46,130 at the tenth percentile, $93,290 at the ninetieth.
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 $62,402.
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 Illinois's own levy, $61,687 remains.
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 49 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 Illinois is $73,360. 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 ($46,130 to $93,290) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Illinois rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Illinois'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 $62,402 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 $61,687 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Illinois 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.