Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators in Utah
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,265
after federal, FICA and Utah tax
Tax takes
$9,595
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,330
Utah costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Utah — 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
$48,860
Kept after tax
$39,265
Worth in national money
$41,330
State rank
35
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Utah. The middle earner gets $48,860. That is 35 of 50 states, and about 8.4% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Utah, this sits in the middle: 319 of 487 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 $48,860 you keep $39,265 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $41,330 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $54,760, since top earners drag the number up.
- For paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators, Utah sits in the lower band at $48,860, ranking 35 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 8.4%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators ranks 319 of 487 occupations in Utah 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 Utah is $39,265 after the full tax stack, from $48,860. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $41,330 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $54,760 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 | $45,240 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,860 |
| Top tenth earn over | $70,840 |
| This salary | $48,860 |
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 Utah | $39,265 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,439 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,313 |
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 | $46,154 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,588 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 95 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Utah earn less than $48,860. The published range is $45,240 up to $70,840, 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 Utah's $39,265, worked from $48,860. 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 319 of 487.
- Two cautions on $41,330, the adjusted value of that $48,860 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Utah. 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 319 of 487 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators in Utah the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $45,240 to $70,840. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Utah take-home of $39,265, on $48,860 for work ranking 319 of 487 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 319 of 487 in the state.
- This $41,330 adjusted figure, worked from $48,860, 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 319 of 487 in the state. The occupation ranks 319 of 487 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $54,760, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $45,240 at the tenth percentile, $70,840 at the ninetieth.
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 $41,330.
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 Utah's own levy, $39,265 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.
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 Utah is $54,760. 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 ($45,240 to $70,840) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Utah rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Utah'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 $41,330 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 $39,265 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Utah 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.