Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$53,821
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$10,449
16.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,576
Washington costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Washington — 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
$64,270
Kept after tax
$53,821
Worth in national money
$49,576
State rank
11
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Washington pays this job a middle wage of $64,270, ranking 11 of 49 states and sitting about 11.91% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 276 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $64,270, tax leaves $53,821 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $49,576 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $71,140, since top earners drag the number up.
- Washington's median for excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining is $64,270, about 11.91% above the national figure and 11 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining ranks 276 of 493 occupations in Washington 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.
- After tax, $53,821 remains from the Washington median of $64,270 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $49,576 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $71,140 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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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 | $50,970 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,270 |
| Top tenth earn over | $93,150 |
| This salary | $64,270 |
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 Washington | $53,821 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,821 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,809 |
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 | $64,270 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,026 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
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 Washington earn under $64,270 and half over. The published range runs $50,970 at the tenth percentile to $93,150 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Washington's $53,821, worked from $64,270. 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 276 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $49,576, the adjusted value of that $64,270 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 276 of 493 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $50,970 to $93,150; 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.
- The Washington take-home of $53,821, on $64,270 for work ranking 276 of 493 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 276 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $49,576 — the adjusted value of that $64,270 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 276 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $71,140, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $50,970 at the bottom tenth to $93,150 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Washington costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $49,576 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $53,821 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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.
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 Washington is $71,140. 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 ($50,970 to $93,150) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Washington rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Washington's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $49,576 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Washington levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $53,821 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.