Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators in Idaho

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,411
after federal, FICA and Idaho tax
Tax takes
$13,049
20.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,232
Idaho costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Idaho — 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
$64,460
Kept after tax
$51,411
Worth in national money
$56,232
State rank
40
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Idaho. The middle earner gets $64,460. That is 40 of 51 states, and about 18.01% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Idaho, this sits in the middle: 156 of 476 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Idaho is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $64,460 the take-home is $51,411; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $56,232 would nationally. The average comes to $66,500, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For stationary engineers and boiler operators, Idaho sits in the lower band at $64,460, ranking 40 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 18.01%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Stationary engineers and boiler operators ranks 156 of 476 occupations in Idaho 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.
- Post-tax income for stationary engineers and boiler operators in Idaho, on $64,460, is $51,411 — equivalent to $56,232 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 $66,500 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $53,950 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,460 |
| Top tenth earn over | $80,870 |
| This salary | $64,460 |
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 Idaho | $51,411 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,974 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$690 |
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 | $61,270 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$834 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Idaho earn less than $64,460. The published range is $53,950 up to $80,870, 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 Idaho's $51,411, worked from $64,460. 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 156 of 476.
- Two cautions on $56,232, the adjusted value of that $64,460 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Idaho. 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 156 of 476 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for stationary engineers and boiler operators in Idaho the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $53,950 to $80,870. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Idaho take-home of $51,411, on $64,460 for work ranking 156 of 476 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 156 of 476 in the state.
- This $56,232 adjusted figure, worked from $64,460, 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 156 of 476 in the state. The occupation ranks 156 of 476 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $66,500, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $53,950 at the bottom tenth to $80,870 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 $56,232.
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 Idaho adds its own income tax on top — which is why $51,411 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Idaho is $66,500. 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 ($53,950 to $80,870) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Idaho rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Idaho'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 $56,232 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 $51,411 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Idaho 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.