Farm Equipment Mechanics and Service Technicians in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,980
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$9,810
18.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,065
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$53,790
Kept after tax
$43,980
Worth in national money
$39,065
State rank
25
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- California sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $53,790, ranking 25 of 47 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 347 among 492 occupations California publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $53,790, tax leaves $43,980 — and because California is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $39,065 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $59,990, since top earners drag the number up.
- California occupies the middle band for farm equipment mechanics and service technicians: a median of $53,790, ranking 25 of 47. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Position 347 of 492 in California places farm equipment mechanics and service technicians in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After tax, $43,980 remains from the California median of $53,790 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $39,065 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $59,990 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Farm Equipment Mechanics and Service Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,560 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $53,790 |
| Top tenth earn over | $83,200 |
| This salary | $53,790 |
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 California | $43,980 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $45,400 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,655 |
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 | $52,023 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,257 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $53,790 as a midpoint for California, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $38,560 and the ninetieth is $83,200 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In California the take-home figure of $43,980, from $53,790, 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 347 of 492 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $39,065, the adjusted value of that $53,790 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of California. 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 347 of 492 locally.
- The California median of $53,790 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $38,560 to $83,200. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for California is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $43,980 from $53,790. 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 347 of 492 locally.
- This $39,065 adjusted figure, worked from $53,790, 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 347 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 347 of 492 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 $59,990 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $38,560 and the top tenth $83,200 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $39,065 of national purchasing power.
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 California's own levy, $43,980 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 California is $59,990. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($38,560) and the ninetieth ($83,200) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $39,065 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $43,980 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.