Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,993
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$13,177
20.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,488
Maine costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maine — 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
$63,170
Kept after tax
$49,993
Worth in national money
$51,488
State rank
17
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Maine's middle earner gets $63,170, putting the state 17 of 51 — about 3.54% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Maine, this sits in the middle: 201 of 484 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $63,170 the take-home is $49,993, which is worth about $51,488 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $65,300, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers, Maine sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $63,170, ranking 17 of 51 and running about 3.54% 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.
- Heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers ranks 201 of 484 occupations in Maine 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.
- Maine's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers on its $63,170 median: $49,993 retained after tax becomes $51,488 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $65,300 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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: Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,090 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,170 |
| Top tenth earn over | $82,090 |
| This salary | $63,170 |
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 Maine | $49,993 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,937 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,988 |
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 | $59,506 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,614 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
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 heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers in Maine earn under $63,170 and half over. The published range runs $47,090 at the tenth percentile to $82,090 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Maine the take-home figure of $49,993, from $63,170, 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 201 of 484 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $51,488 uses one figure for the whole of Maine. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 484 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 201.
- Figures are distribution medians for heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers in Maine, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $47,090 to $82,090; 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 Maine is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $49,993 from $63,170. 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 201 of 484 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $51,488, worked from $63,170, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Maine address, on work sitting at 201 of 484 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 $65,300, 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 — $47,090 at the tenth percentile, $82,090 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Maine is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $51,488 in national terms.
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 Maine adds its own income tax on top — which is why $49,993 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Maine is $65,300. 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 ($47,090 to $82,090) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maine rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Maine'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 $51,488 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 $49,993 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.