Power Plant Operators in Ohio
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$79,959
after federal, FICA and Ohio tax
Tax takes
$24,201
23.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$87,089
Ohio costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Ohio — 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
$104,160
Kept after tax
$79,959
Worth in national money
$87,089
State rank
21
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Ohio is 21 of 49 states for power plant operators, with a middle wage of $104,160. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 494 occupations Ohio reports, power plant operators comes in at 39 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Ohio is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $104,160 the take-home is $79,959; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $87,089 would nationally. The average lands at $98,700, below the middle of the range.
- Ohio ranks 21 of 49 for power plant operators at $104,160. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Power plant operators ranks 39 of 494 occupations by median in Ohio, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Post-tax income for power plant operators in Ohio, on $104,160, is $79,959 — equivalent to $87,089 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 $98,700 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Power Plant Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $69,180 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $104,160 |
| Top tenth earn over | $119,170 |
| This salary | $104,160 |
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 Ohio | $79,959 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $82,107 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,596 |
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 | $101,107 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,586 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $104,160 as a midpoint for Ohio, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $69,180 and the ninetieth is $119,170 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $79,959 take-home in Ohio comes from $104,160. 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 39 of 494.
- Two cautions on $87,089, the adjusted value of that $104,160 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Ohio. 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 39 of 494 locally.
- The Ohio median of $104,160 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $69,180 to $119,170. 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 $79,959, from $104,160, assumes a single Ohio 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 39 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 21 of 49 for it.
- This $87,089 adjusted figure, worked from $104,160, 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 39 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 39 of 494 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 $98,700, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $69,180 at the bottom tenth to $119,170 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $87,089.
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 Ohio's own levy, $79,959 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 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 Ohio is $98,700. 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 ($69,180 to $119,170) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Ohio rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Ohio'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 $87,089 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 $79,959 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Ohio 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.