Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,993
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$7,067
15.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,155
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
$47,060
Kept after tax
$39,993
Worth in national money
$41,155
State rank
39
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Texas. The middle earner gets $47,060. That is 39 of 50 states, and about 11.77% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 493 occupations Texas reports figures for, this is number 313.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $47,060, tax leaves $39,993, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $41,155 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $48,940, since top earners drag the number up.
- For paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators, Texas sits in the lower band at $47,060, ranking 39 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 11.77%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- In Texas's occupational distribution, paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators sits at 313 of 493 — 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.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators — median $47,060 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $39,993 retained, $41,155 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $48,940 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 | $37,280 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,060 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,660 |
| This salary | $47,060 |
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 | $39,993 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $39,993 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,497 |
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 | $47,060 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,215 |
| 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 $47,060. The published range is $37,280 up to $61,660, 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 Texas's $39,993, worked from $47,060. 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 313 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $41,155 uses one figure for the whole of Texas. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 313.
- Reported values are medians; for paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators in Texas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $37,280 to $61,660. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Texas take-home of $39,993, on $47,060 for work ranking 313 of 493 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 313 of 493 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $41,155, worked from $47,060, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Texas address, on work sitting at 313 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 $48,940 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 $37,280 and the top tenth $61,660, so most people doing this work in Texas 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 $41,155.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $39,993 of this wage reaches your account, because Texas takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $48,940. 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 ($37,280 to $61,660) 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 $41,155 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 $39,993 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.
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.