Surveyors in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$63,055
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$20,145
24.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$64,940
Maine costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maine — 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
$83,200
Kept after tax
$63,055
Worth in national money
$64,940
State rank
8
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Maine pays surveyors a middle wage of $83,200, ranking 8 of 50 states and sitting about 10.29% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 484 occupations Maine reports, surveyors comes in at 102 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $83,200, tax leaves $63,055, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $64,940 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $90,520, since top earners drag the number up.
- Maine's median for surveyors is $83,200, about 10.29% above the national figure and 8 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Surveyors ranks 102 of 484 occupations by median in Maine, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Because Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for surveyors — median $83,200 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $63,055 retained, $64,940 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $90,520 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Surveyors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $56,110 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $83,200 |
| Top tenth earn over | $131,890 |
| This salary | $83,200 |
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 Maine | $63,055 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $67,361 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,380 |
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 | $77,078 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,050 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 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 surveyors in Maine earn under $83,200 and half over. The published range runs $56,110 at the tenth percentile to $131,890 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Maine's $63,055, worked from $83,200. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 102 of 484.
- Two cautions on $64,940, the adjusted value of that $83,200 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Maine. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 102 of 484 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for surveyors in Maine, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $56,110 to $131,890; 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.
- The Maine take-home of $63,055, on $83,200 for work ranking 102 of 484 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 102 of 484 in the state.
- This $64,940 adjusted figure, worked from $83,200, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 102 of 484 in the state. The occupation ranks 102 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 $90,520, 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $56,110 at the bottom tenth to $131,890 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $64,940 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Maine then takes its own share, leaving $63,055.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $90,520. 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 ($56,110) and the ninetieth ($131,890) 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?
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 $64,940 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 $63,055 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.