Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators in Indiana

Machined metal parts and a CNC machine in a clean manufacturing workshop.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$54,395

after federal, FICA and Indiana tax

Tax takes

$13,165

19.5% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$59,007

Indiana costs less than average

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

$67,560

Kept after tax

$54,395

Worth in national money

$59,007

State rank

32

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Indiana sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $67,560, ranking 32 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
  • Against other work in Indiana, this sits in the middle: 156 of 493 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 $67,560 you keep $54,395 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $59,007 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $70,040, since top earners drag the number up.
  • Indiana occupies the middle band for stationary engineers and boiler operators: a median of $67,560, ranking 32 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
  • Stationary engineers and boiler operators ranks 156 of 493 occupations in Indiana 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 Indiana is $54,395 after the full tax stack, from $67,560. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $59,007 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $70,040 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$48,730
Half earn under$67,560
Top tenth earn over$94,080
This salary$67,560

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

Compare with
+$1,964take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Indiana$54,395
Take-home in Texas$56,358
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,010

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

Moving to
$0$68,955
$68,955in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$64,984
Raise you would need+$1,395
Prices in Texas97 vs 92

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $67,560 as a midpoint for Indiana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,730 and the ninetieth is $94,080 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • In Indiana the take-home figure of $54,395, from $67,560, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 156 of 493 occupations here.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $59,007 uses one figure for the whole of Indiana. 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 156.
  • The Indiana median of $67,560 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,730 to $94,080. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
  • Take-home for Indiana is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $54,395 from $67,560. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 156 of 493 locally.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $59,007, worked from $67,560, 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 Indiana address, on work sitting at 156 of 493 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 $70,040, 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 $48,730 at the bottom tenth to $94,080 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

More than the figure suggests. Prices in Indiana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $59,007 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.

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 Indiana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $54,395 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 Indiana is $70,040. 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 ($48,730 to $94,080) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Indiana rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Indiana'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 $59,007 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 $54,395 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Indiana 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.