Mechanical Engineers in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$92,654
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$38,246
29.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$82,300
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$130,900
Kept after tax
$92,654
Worth in national money
$82,300
State rank
3
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for mechanical engineers is strong here. California's middle earner gets $130,900, putting the state 3 of 51 — about 25.73% ahead of the national figure.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 492 occupations California reports, mechanical engineers comes in at 54 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $130,900, tax leaves $92,654 — and because California is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $82,300 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $136,660, since top earners drag the number up.
- For mechanical engineers, California sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $130,900, ranking 3 of 51 and running about 25.73% 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.
- Mechanical engineers ranks 54 of 492 occupations by median in California, 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.
- After tax, $92,654 remains from the California median of $130,900 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $82,300 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $136,660 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Mechanical Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $82,070 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $130,900 |
| Top tenth earn over | $203,620 |
| This salary | $130,900 |
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 California | $92,654 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $100,736 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$21,364 |
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 | $119,153 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$29,770 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
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 mechanical engineers in California earn under $130,900 and half over. The published range runs $82,070 at the tenth percentile to $203,620 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In California the take-home figure of $92,654, from $130,900, 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 54 of 492 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $82,300, the adjusted value of that $130,900 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of California. 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 54 of 492 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for mechanical engineers in California, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $82,070 to $203,620; 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 California is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $92,654 from $130,900. 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 54 of 492 locally.
- This $82,300 adjusted figure, worked from $130,900, 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 54 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 54 of 492 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 $136,660 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $82,070, the highest tenth $203,620, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $82,300 of national purchasing power.
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 California adds its own income tax on top — which is why $92,654 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 California is $136,660. 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 ($82,070) and the ninetieth ($203,620) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $82,300 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $92,654 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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.