Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,470
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$8,940
18.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,070
Mississippi costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Mississippi — 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
$47,410
Kept after tax
$38,470
Worth in national money
$44,070
State rank
50
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Mississippi is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $47,410, ranking 50 of 51 states — about 20.79% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Mississippi, this sits in the middle: 256 of 486 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Mississippi does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $47,410 you keep $38,470, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $44,070 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $50,010, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Mississippi ranks 50 of 51 for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators, with a median of $47,410 — about 20.79% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators ranks 256 of 486 occupations in Mississippi 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.
- After federal, FICA and Mississippi income tax, retained pay for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators on $47,410 is $38,470. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $44,070 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $50,010 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,180 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,410 |
| Top tenth earn over | $67,030 |
| This salary | $47,410 |
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 Mississippi | $38,470 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,274 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,625 |
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 | $45,164 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,175 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $47,410 as a midpoint for Mississippi, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,180 and the ninetieth is $67,030 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $38,470 take-home in Mississippi comes from $47,410. 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 256 of 486.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $44,070 uses one figure for the whole of Mississippi. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 486 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 256.
- The Mississippi median of $47,410 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,180 to $67,030. 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 $38,470, from $47,410, assumes a single Mississippi 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 256 of 486 locally, and the state ranks 50 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $44,070, worked from $47,410, 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 Mississippi address, on work sitting at 256 of 486 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 $50,010 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $36,180 and the top tenth $67,030, so most people doing this work in Mississippi sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $44,070.
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 Mississippi adds its own income tax on top — which is why $38,470 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 Mississippi is $50,010. 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 ($36,180 to $67,030) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Mississippi rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Mississippi'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 $44,070 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 $38,470 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Mississippi 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.