Maintenance Workers, Machinery in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,322
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$12,398
19.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,929
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — 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
$63,720
Kept after tax
$51,322
Worth in national money
$55,929
State rank
14
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Missouri pays maintenance workers, machinery a middle wage of $63,720, ranking 14 of 46 states and sitting about 4.72% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Missouri, this sits in the middle: 172 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $63,720 you keep $51,322 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $55,929 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $67,440, since top earners drag the number up.
- Missouri's median for maintenance workers, machinery is $63,720, about 4.72% above the national figure and 14 of 46 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Maintenance workers, machinery ranks 172 of 488 occupations in Missouri 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.
- Retained pay in Missouri is $51,322 after the full tax stack, from $63,720. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $55,929 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $67,440 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Maintenance Workers, Machinery
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,070 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,720 |
| Top tenth earn over | $84,430 |
| This salary | $63,720 |
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 Missouri | $51,322 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,379 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$998 |
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 | $61,159 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,207 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $63,720 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,070 and the ninetieth is $84,430 — 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 Missouri's $51,322, worked from $63,720. 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 172 of 488.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $55,929 uses one figure for the whole of Missouri. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 172.
- The Missouri median of $63,720 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,070 to $84,430. 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 Missouri take-home of $51,322, on $63,720 for work ranking 172 of 488 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 172 of 488 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $55,929, worked from $63,720, 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 Missouri address, on work sitting at 172 of 488 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 $67,440, 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?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $48,070 and the top tenth $84,430, so most people doing this work in Missouri sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Missouri sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $55,929 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 Missouri adds its own income tax on top — which is why $51,322 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 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 Missouri is $67,440. 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 ($48,070 to $84,430) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Missouri rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri'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 $55,929 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 $51,322 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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.