Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,725
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$7,735
15.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,967
Texas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Texas — 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
$50,460
Kept after tax
$42,725
Worth in national money
$43,967
State rank
43
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Texas pays this job a middle wage of $50,460, 43 of 51 states and about 15.69% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 264 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Texas costs about what the country costs, so from $50,460, take-home of $42,725 is worth roughly $43,967 in national money. The average comes to $53,740, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Texas's $50,460 median for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators places it 43 of 51 states, about 15.69% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators ranks 264 of 493 occupations in Texas 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.
- Price parity in Texas is near the national base, so for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators, whose median is $50,460, the adjusted figure of $43,967 differs little from $42,725 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $53,740 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,900 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $50,460 |
| Top tenth earn over | $70,010 |
| This salary | $50,460 |
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 Texas | $42,725 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $42,725 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,668 |
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 | $50,460 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,435 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Texas earn less than $50,460. The published range is $38,900 up to $70,010, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $42,725, from $50,460, 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 264 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $43,967, the adjusted value of that $50,460 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Texas. 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 264 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for operating engineers and other construction equipment operators in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $38,900 to $70,010. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Texas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $42,725 from $50,460. 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 264 of 493 locally.
- This $43,967 adjusted figure, worked from $50,460, 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 264 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 264 of 493 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 $53,740 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 $38,900 and the top tenth $70,010, so most people doing this work in Texas sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Texas is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $43,967 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $42,725 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 Texas is $53,740. 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 ($38,900 to $70,010) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Texas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Texas'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 $43,967 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Texas levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $42,725 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.