Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining in New Mexico
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,119
after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax
Tax takes
$16,231
21.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$66,514
New Mexico costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Mexico — 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
$76,350
Kept after tax
$60,119
Worth in national money
$66,514
State rank
5
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- New Mexico is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $76,350, which ranks 5 of 49 states with published figures. That is about 32.94% above the national middle.
- Against other work in New Mexico, this sits in the middle: 131 of 485 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 $76,350 you keep $60,119 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $66,514 at national prices. Here the average runs under the middle, at $67,590.
- New Mexico ranks 5 of 49 states publishing a median for excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining, at $76,350 — about 32.94% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining ranks 131 of 485 occupations in New Mexico 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 New Mexico is $60,119 after the full tax stack, from $76,350. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $66,514 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $67,590 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 | $44,840 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $76,350 |
| Top tenth earn over | $85,880 |
| This salary | $76,350 |
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 New Mexico | $60,119 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $62,542 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,154 |
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 | $72,906 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,975 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in New Mexico earn less than $76,350. The published range is $44,840 up to $85,880, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $60,119 take-home in New Mexico comes from $76,350. 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 131 of 485.
- Two cautions on $66,514, the adjusted value of that $76,350 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Mexico. 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 131 of 485 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining in New Mexico the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $44,840 to $85,880. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $60,119, from $76,350, assumes a single New Mexico 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 131 of 485 locally, and the state ranks 5 of 49 for it.
- This $66,514 adjusted figure, worked from $76,350, 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 131 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 131 of 485 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 $67,590, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $44,840 at the bottom tenth to $85,880 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in New Mexico sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $66,514 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 New Mexico adds its own income tax on top — which is why $60,119 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 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 New Mexico is $67,590. 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 ($44,840 to $85,880) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Mexico rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
New Mexico'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 $66,514 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 $60,119 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Mexico 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.