Maintenance Workers, Machinery in Louisiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,018
after federal, FICA and Louisiana tax
Tax takes
$11,622
18.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$57,749
Louisiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Louisiana — 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
$62,640
Kept after tax
$51,018
Worth in national money
$57,749
State rank
18
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Louisiana is 18 of 46 states for maintenance workers, machinery, with a middle wage of $62,640. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Maintenance workers, machinery ranks 163 among 484 occupations Louisiana publishes pay for.
- Louisiana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $62,640 the take-home is $51,018; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $57,749 would nationally. The average comes to $66,410, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Louisiana ranks 18 of 46 for maintenance workers, machinery at $62,640. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Position 163 of 484 in Louisiana places maintenance workers, machinery 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.
- Post-tax income for maintenance workers, machinery in Louisiana, on $62,640, is $51,018 — equivalent to $57,749 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $66,410 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Maintenance Workers, Machinery
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,930 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,640 |
| Top tenth earn over | $92,510 |
| This salary | $62,640 |
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 Louisiana | $51,018 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,511 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,711 |
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 | $60,782 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,578 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $62,640 as a midpoint for Louisiana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $40,930 and the ninetieth is $92,510 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $51,018 take-home in Louisiana comes from $62,640. 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 163 of 484.
- Two cautions on $57,749, the adjusted value of that $62,640 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Louisiana. 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 163 of 484 locally.
- The Louisiana median of $62,640 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $40,930 to $92,510. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $51,018, from $62,640, assumes a single Louisiana 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 163 of 484 locally, and the state ranks 18 of 46 for it.
- This $57,749 adjusted figure, worked from $62,640, 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 163 of 484 in the state. The occupation ranks 163 of 484 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 $66,410 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 $40,930 and the top tenth $92,510 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Louisiana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $57,749 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 Louisiana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $51,018 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 46 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 Louisiana is $66,410. 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 ($40,930) and the ninetieth ($92,510) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Louisiana'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 $57,749 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 $51,018 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Louisiana 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.