Highway Maintenance Workers in Idaho
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,097
after federal, FICA and Idaho tax
Tax takes
$9,953
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,045
Idaho costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Idaho — 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
$52,050
Kept after tax
$42,097
Worth in national money
$46,045
State rank
19
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Idaho pays highway maintenance workers around $52,050 at the midpoint, 19 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Highway maintenance workers ranks 259 among 476 occupations Idaho publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $52,050 you keep $42,097 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $46,045 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $55,280, since top earners drag the number up.
- For highway maintenance workers the Idaho median is $52,050, ranking 19 of 49 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 259 of 476 in Idaho places highway maintenance workers 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.
- Retained pay in Idaho is $42,097 after the full tax stack, from $52,050. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $46,045 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $55,280 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Highway Maintenance Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,260 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $52,050 |
| Top tenth earn over | $70,840 |
| This salary | $52,050 |
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 Idaho | $42,097 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $44,002 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$764 |
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 | $49,679 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$924 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $52,050 as a midpoint for Idaho, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $43,260 and the ninetieth is $70,840 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Idaho's $42,097, worked from $52,050. 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 259 of 476.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $46,045 uses one figure for the whole of Idaho. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 476 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 259.
- The Idaho median of $52,050 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $43,260 to $70,840. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Idaho take-home of $42,097, on $52,050 for work ranking 259 of 476 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 259 of 476 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $46,045, worked from $52,050, 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 Idaho address, on work sitting at 259 of 476 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 $55,280 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $43,260 at the bottom tenth to $70,840 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $46,045.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Idaho then takes its own share, leaving $42,097.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 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 Idaho is $55,280. 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 ($43,260 to $70,840) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Idaho rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Idaho'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 $46,045 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 $42,097 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Idaho 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.