Surgical Technologists in Maine

A stethoscope and folded scrubs in a sunlit clinical workspace.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$49,765

after federal, FICA and Maine tax

Tax takes

$13,095

20.8% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$51,253

Maine 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

$62,860

Kept after tax

$49,765

Worth in national money

$51,253

State rank

27

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Maine sits in the middle of the pack for surgical technologists. The median is $62,860, ranking 27 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 Maine, this sits in the middle: 207 of 484 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
  • Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $62,860 the take-home is $49,765, which is worth about $51,253 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $65,140, because the best-paid pull it up.
  • Maine occupies the middle band for surgical technologists: a median of $62,860, ranking 27 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.
  • Surgical technologists ranks 207 of 484 occupations in Maine 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.
  • Maine's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for surgical technologists on its $62,860 median: $49,765 retained after tax becomes $51,253 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $65,140 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Surgical Technologists

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$48,330
Half earn under$62,860
Top tenth earn over$80,380
This salary$62,860

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
+$2,923take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Maine$49,765
Take-home in Texas$52,688
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$2,967

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
$0now · $62,860$59,272
$59,272in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$59,222
You could take a cut of−$3,588
Prices in Texas97 vs 97

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 surgical technologists in Maine earn under $62,860 and half over. The published range runs $48,330 at the tenth percentile to $80,380 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • That $49,765 take-home in Maine comes from $62,860. 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 207 of 484.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $51,253 uses one figure for the whole of Maine. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 484 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 207.
  • Figures are distribution medians for surgical technologists in Maine, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $48,330 to $80,380; 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 $49,765, from $62,860, assumes a single Maine 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 207 of 484 locally, and the state ranks 27 of 51 for it.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $51,253, worked from $62,860, 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 Maine address, on work sitting at 207 of 484 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 $65,140, 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?

Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $48,330 and the top tenth $80,380, so most people doing this work in Maine sit within a fairly tight band.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

Further than the number implies. Maine is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $51,253 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 Maine adds its own income tax on top — which is why $49,765 of this wage survives to your account.

Can I compare this job across every state?

All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.

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 Maine is $65,140. 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 ($48,330 to $80,380) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maine rather than a national figure.

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

Maine'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 $51,253 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 $49,765 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.