Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators in Oklahoma
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,148
after federal, FICA and Oklahoma tax
Tax takes
$8,612
18.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,210
Oklahoma costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Oklahoma — 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
$46,760
Kept after tax
$38,148
Worth in national money
$43,210
State rank
42
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Oklahoma pays this job a middle wage of $46,760, 42 of 50 states and about 12.34% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Oklahoma, this sits in the middle: 302 of 492 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 $46,760 you keep $38,148 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $43,210 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $48,050, since top earners drag the number up.
- Oklahoma's $46,760 median for paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators places it 42 of 50 states, about 12.34% 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.
- Paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators ranks 302 of 492 occupations in Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma is $38,148 after the full tax stack, from $46,760. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $43,210 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $48,050 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,620 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,760 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,910 |
| This salary | $46,760 |
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 Oklahoma | $38,148 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,752 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,302 |
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 | $44,764 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,784 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $46,760 as a midpoint for Oklahoma, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,620 and the ninetieth is $58,910 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $38,148 take-home in Oklahoma comes from $46,760. 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 302 of 492.
- Two cautions on $43,210, the adjusted value of that $46,760 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Oklahoma. 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 302 of 492 locally.
- The Oklahoma median of $46,760 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,620 to $58,910. 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 $38,148, from $46,760, assumes a single Oklahoma 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 302 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 42 of 50 for it.
- This $43,210 adjusted figure, worked from $46,760, 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 302 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 302 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $36,620 and the top tenth $58,910, so most people doing this work in Oklahoma sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Oklahoma is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $43,210 in national terms.
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 Oklahoma's own levy, $38,148 remains.
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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($36,620 to $58,910) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Oklahoma rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Oklahoma'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 $43,210 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 $38,148 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Oklahoma 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.