Surgical Technologists in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,999
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$18,871
23.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$57,280
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$80,870
Kept after tax
$61,999
Worth in national money
$57,280
State rank
4
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for surgical technologists is strong here. Massachusetts's middle earner gets $80,870, putting the state 4 of 51 — about 25.09% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Surgical technologists ranks 176 among 485 occupations Massachusetts publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $80,870, tax leaves $61,999 — and because Massachusetts is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $57,280 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $83,820, since top earners drag the number up.
- For surgical technologists, Massachusetts sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $80,870, ranking 4 of 51 and running about 25.09% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Position 176 of 485 in Massachusetts places surgical technologists in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After tax, $61,999 remains from the Massachusetts median of $80,870 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $57,280 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $83,820 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Surgical Technologists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $60,350 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $80,870 |
| Top tenth earn over | $109,550 |
| This salary | $80,870 |
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 Massachusetts | $61,999 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,722 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,353 |
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 | $75,577 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,300 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $80,870 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $60,350 and the ninetieth is $109,550 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $61,999 take-home in Massachusetts comes from $80,870. 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 176 of 485.
- One number stands for prices across all of Massachusetts, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $57,280, the adjusted value of that $80,870 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 176 of 485 in the state.
- The Massachusetts median of $80,870 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $60,350 to $109,550. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $61,999, from $80,870, assumes a single Massachusetts 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 176 of 485 locally, and the state ranks 4 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Massachusetts, so $57,280 — the adjusted value of that $80,870 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 176 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $83,820, 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 $60,350 at the bottom tenth to $109,550 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $57,280 of national purchasing power.
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 Massachusetts adds its own income tax on top — which is why $61,999 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 Massachusetts is $83,820. 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 ($60,350 to $109,550) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Massachusetts rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $57,280 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $61,999 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.