Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,226
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$10,414
19.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,519
Mississippi costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Mississippi — 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
$53,640
Kept after tax
$43,226
Worth in national money
$49,519
State rank
48
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Mississippi. The middle earner gets $53,640. That is 48 of 51 states, and about 31.77% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Mississippi, this sits in the middle: 200 of 486 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Mississippi does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $53,640 you keep $43,226, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $49,519 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $59,070, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For stationary engineers and boiler operators, Mississippi sits in the lower band at $53,640, ranking 48 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 31.77%. 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 200 of 486 occupations in Mississippi 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.
- After federal, FICA and Mississippi income tax, retained pay for stationary engineers and boiler operators on $53,640 is $43,226. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $49,519 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $59,070 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $42,440 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $53,640 |
| Top tenth earn over | $78,390 |
| This salary | $53,640 |
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 Mississippi | $43,226 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $45,280 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,923 |
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 | $51,084 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,535 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of stationary engineers and boiler operators in Mississippi earn under $53,640 and half over. The published range runs $42,440 at the tenth percentile to $78,390 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $43,226 take-home in Mississippi comes from $53,640. 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 200 of 486.
- One number stands for prices across all of Mississippi, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $49,519, the adjusted value of that $53,640 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 200 of 486 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for stationary engineers and boiler operators in Mississippi, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $42,440 to $78,390; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $43,226, from $53,640, assumes a single Mississippi 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 200 of 486 locally, and the state ranks 48 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Mississippi, so $49,519 — the adjusted value of that $53,640 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 200 of 486 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 $59,070, 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 $42,440 at the bottom tenth to $78,390 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 $49,519.
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 Mississippi adds its own income tax on top — which is why $43,226 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 Mississippi is $59,070. 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 ($42,440 to $78,390) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Mississippi rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Mississippi'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 $49,519 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 $43,226 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Mississippi 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.