Materials Engineers in New Mexico
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$117,670
after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax
Tax takes
$47,930
28.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$130,186
New Mexico costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Mexico — 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
$165,600
Kept after tax
$117,670
Worth in national money
$130,186
State rank
1
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- New Mexico is one of the better-paying states for materials engineers. The middle earner takes $165,600, which ranks 1 of 45 states with published figures. That is about 46.73% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 485 occupations New Mexico reports, materials engineers comes in at 6 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- New Mexico is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $165,600 the take-home is $117,670; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $130,186 would nationally. The average comes to $173,000, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- New Mexico ranks 1 of 45 states publishing a median for materials engineers, at $165,600 — about 46.73% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Materials engineers ranks 6 of 485 occupations by median in New Mexico, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Post-tax income for materials engineers in New Mexico, on $165,600, is $117,670 — equivalent to $130,186 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 $173,000 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Materials Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $126,640 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $165,600 |
| Top tenth earn over | $204,400 |
| This salary | $165,600 |
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 New Mexico | $117,670 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $124,454 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,115 |
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 | $155,675 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,006 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $165,600 as a midpoint for New Mexico, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $126,640 and the ninetieth is $204,400 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In New Mexico the take-home figure of $117,670, from $165,600, 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 6 of 485 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $130,186 uses one figure for the whole of New Mexico. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 485 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 6.
- The New Mexico median of $165,600 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $126,640 to $204,400. 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 New Mexico is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $117,670 from $165,600. 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 6 of 485 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $130,186, worked from $165,600, 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 New Mexico address, on work sitting at 6 of 485 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 $173,000 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 $126,640 at the bottom tenth to $204,400 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 $130,186.
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 New Mexico adds its own income tax on top — which is why $117,670 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 45 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 New Mexico is $173,000. 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 ($126,640 to $204,400) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Mexico rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
New Mexico'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 $130,186 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 $117,670 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Mexico 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.