Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators in Kansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,158
after federal, FICA and Kansas tax
Tax takes
$9,912
20.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,526
Kansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Kansas — 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
$49,070
Kept after tax
$39,158
Worth in national money
$43,526
State rank
34
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Kansas. The middle earner gets $49,070. That is 34 of 50 states, and about 8.01% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 488 occupations Kansas reports figures for, this is number 282.
- Kansas is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $49,070 the take-home is $39,158; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $43,526 would nationally. The average comes to $54,410, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators, Kansas sits in the lower band at $49,070, ranking 34 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 8.01%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- In Kansas's occupational distribution, paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators sits at 282 of 488 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Post-tax income for paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators in Kansas, on $49,070, is $39,158 — equivalent to $43,526 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $54,410 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,150 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,070 |
| Top tenth earn over | $70,670 |
| This salary | $49,070 |
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 Kansas | $39,158 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,608 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$709 |
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 | $46,021 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$857 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $49,070 as a midpoint for Kansas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $40,150 and the ninetieth is $70,670 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Kansas's $39,158, worked from $49,070. 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 282 of 488.
- Two cautions on $43,526, the adjusted value of that $49,070 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Kansas. 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 282 of 488 locally.
- The Kansas median of $49,070 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $40,150 to $70,670. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Kansas take-home of $39,158, on $49,070 for work ranking 282 of 488 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 282 of 488 in the state.
- This $43,526 adjusted figure, worked from $49,070, 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 282 of 488 in the state. The occupation ranks 282 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $54,410, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $40,150 and the top tenth $70,670, so most people doing this work in Kansas 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 $43,526.
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 Kansas adds its own income tax on top — which is why $39,158 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 Kansas is $54,410. 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 ($40,150 to $70,670) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Kansas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Kansas'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 $43,526 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 $39,158 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Kansas 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.