Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators in New Mexico
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$58,892
after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax
Tax takes
$15,588
20.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$65,156
New Mexico costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Mexico — 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
$74,480
Kept after tax
$58,892
Worth in national money
$65,156
State rank
22
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. New Mexico pays this job around $74,480 at the midpoint, 22 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in New Mexico, this sits in the middle: 141 of 485 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where New Mexico does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $74,480 you keep $58,892, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $65,156 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $77,170, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For stationary engineers and boiler operators the New Mexico median is $74,480, ranking 22 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Stationary engineers and boiler operators ranks 141 of 485 occupations in New Mexico 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 New Mexico income tax, retained pay for stationary engineers and boiler operators on $74,480 is $58,892. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $65,156 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 $77,170 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 | $39,520 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $74,480 |
| Top tenth earn over | $116,160 |
| This salary | $74,480 |
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 New Mexico | $58,892 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,227 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,149 |
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 | $71,161 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,969 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $74,480 as a midpoint for New Mexico, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $39,520 and the ninetieth is $116,160 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In New Mexico the take-home figure of $58,892, from $74,480, 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 141 of 485 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of New Mexico, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $65,156, the adjusted value of that $74,480 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 141 of 485 in the state.
- The New Mexico median of $74,480 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $39,520 to $116,160. 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 New Mexico is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $58,892 from $74,480. 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 141 of 485 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for New Mexico, so $65,156 — the adjusted value of that $74,480 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 141 of 485 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 $77,170, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $39,520, the highest tenth $116,160, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. New Mexico is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $65,156 in national terms.
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 New Mexico adds its own income tax on top — which is why $58,892 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 New Mexico is $77,170. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($39,520) and the ninetieth ($116,160) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
New Mexico'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 $65,156 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 $58,892 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Mexico 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.