Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators in Vermont
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,707
after federal, FICA and Vermont tax
Tax takes
$11,163
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,368
Vermont costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Vermont — 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
$58,870
Kept after tax
$47,707
Worth in national money
$49,368
State rank
32
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Vermont pays this job around $58,870 at the midpoint, 32 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Vermont, this sits in the middle: 252 of 453 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $58,870 you keep $47,707 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $49,368 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $60,310, since top earners drag the number up.
- For operating engineers and other construction equipment operators the Vermont median is $58,870, ranking 32 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators ranks 252 of 453 occupations in Vermont 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 in Vermont is $47,707 after the full tax stack, from $58,870. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $49,368 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $60,310 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 | $50,270 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,870 |
| Top tenth earn over | $73,860 |
| This salary | $58,870 |
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 Vermont | $47,707 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,482 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,552 |
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 | $56,661 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,877 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $58,870 as a midpoint for Vermont, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $50,270 and the ninetieth is $73,860 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $47,707 take-home in Vermont comes from $58,870. 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 252 of 453.
- Two cautions on $49,368, the adjusted value of that $58,870 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Vermont. 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 252 of 453 locally.
- The Vermont median of $58,870 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $50,270 to $73,860. 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 $47,707, from $58,870, assumes a single Vermont 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 252 of 453 locally, and the state ranks 32 of 51 for it.
- This $49,368 adjusted figure, worked from $58,870, 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 252 of 453 in the state. The occupation ranks 252 of 453 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $50,270 and the top tenth $73,860, so most people doing this work in Vermont 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 $49,368.
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 Vermont's own levy, $47,707 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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($50,270 to $73,860) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Vermont rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Vermont'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 $49,368 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 $47,707 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Vermont 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.