Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,325
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$12,285
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,611
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$63,610
Kept after tax
$51,325
Worth in national money
$50,611
State rank
17
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Rhode Island is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $63,610, which ranks 17 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 6.28% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Rhode Island, this sits in the middle: 222 of 452 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $63,610 the take-home is $51,325, which is worth about $50,611 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $72,470, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Rhode Island ranks 17 of 51 states publishing a median for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators, at $63,610 — about 6.28% 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.
- Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators ranks 222 of 452 occupations in Rhode Island 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.
- Rhode Island's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators on its $63,610 median: $51,325 retained after tax becomes $50,611 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $72,470 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $52,460 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,610 |
| Top tenth earn over | $98,870 |
| This salary | $63,610 |
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 Rhode Island | $51,325 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,291 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,229 |
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 | $61,164 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,115 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Rhode Island earn less than $63,610. The published range is $52,460 up to $98,870, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Rhode Island's $51,325, worked from $63,610. 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 222 of 452.
- One number stands for prices across all of Rhode Island, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $50,611, the adjusted value of that $63,610 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 222 of 452 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators in Rhode Island the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $52,460 to $98,870. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Rhode Island take-home of $51,325, on $63,610 for work ranking 222 of 452 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 222 of 452 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Rhode Island, so $50,611 — the adjusted value of that $63,610 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 222 of 452 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 $72,470 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 $52,460, the highest tenth $98,870, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Rhode Island costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $50,611 rather than its face figure.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $51,325 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 Rhode Island is $72,470. 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 ($52,460) and the ninetieth ($98,870) 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?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $50,611 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 $51,325 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.