Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$62,024
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$18,956
23.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$57,629
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$80,980
Kept after tax
$62,024
Worth in national money
$57,629
State rank
6
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. New York pays this job a middle wage of $80,980, ranking 6 of 51 states and sitting about 35.3% above the national middle.
- Against other work in New York, this sits in the middle: 177 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $80,980, tax leaves $62,024 — and because New York is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $57,629 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $90,690, since top earners drag the number up.
- New York's median for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators is $80,980, about 35.3% above the national figure and 6 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators ranks 177 of 493 occupations in New York 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 tax, $62,024 remains from the New York median of $80,980 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $57,629 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $90,690 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $50,190 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $80,980 |
| Top tenth earn over | $144,920 |
| This salary | $80,980 |
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 York | $62,024 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,799 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,084 |
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 | $75,613 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,929 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
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 York earn under $80,980 and half over. The published range runs $50,190 at the tenth percentile to $144,920 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In New York the take-home figure of $62,024, from $80,980, 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 177 of 493 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $57,629 uses one figure for the whole of New York. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 177.
- Figures are distribution medians for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators in New York, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $50,190 to $144,920; 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 New York is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $62,024 from $80,980. 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 177 of 493 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $57,629, worked from $80,980, 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 York address, on work sitting at 177 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $90,690, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $50,190, the highest tenth $144,920, 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 $57,629 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and New York's own levy, $62,024 remains.
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 York is $90,690. 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 ($50,190) and the ninetieth ($144,920) 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 York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $57,629 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 $62,024 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.