Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$68,384
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$21,276
23.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,805
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$89,660
Kept after tax
$68,384
Worth in national money
$62,805
State rank
3
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. New Jersey's middle earner gets $89,660, putting the state 3 of 51 — about 49.81% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in New Jersey, this sits in the middle: 137 of 490 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $89,660 the take-home is $68,384. But New Jersey costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $62,805 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is higher, $93,270, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For operating engineers and other construction equipment operators, New Jersey sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $89,660, ranking 3 of 51 and running about 49.81% 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.
- Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators ranks 137 of 490 occupations in New Jersey 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 after federal, FICA and New Jersey income tax is $68,384 for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators, from $89,660. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $62,805. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $93,270 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 | $50,760 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $89,660 |
| Top tenth earn over | $133,330 |
| This salary | $89,660 |
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 Jersey | $68,384 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $71,906 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$11,191 |
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 | $84,654 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$15,458 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
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 operating engineers and other construction equipment operators in New Jersey earn under $89,660 and half over. The published range runs $50,760 at the tenth percentile to $133,330 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind New Jersey's $68,384, worked from $89,660. 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 137 of 490.
- Two cautions on $62,805, the adjusted value of that $89,660 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Jersey. 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 137 of 490 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators in New Jersey, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $50,760 to $133,330; 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.
- The New Jersey take-home of $68,384, on $89,660 for work ranking 137 of 490 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 137 of 490 in the state.
- This $62,805 adjusted figure, worked from $89,660, 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 137 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 137 of 490 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 $93,270 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 $50,760 and the top tenth $133,330 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in New Jersey run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $62,805 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Jersey adds its own income tax on top — which is why $68,384 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 New Jersey is $93,270. 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 ($50,760) and the ninetieth ($133,330) 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?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $62,805 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 $68,384 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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.