Tree Trimmers and Pruners in New Mexico
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,142
after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax
Tax takes
$8,188
17.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,305
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
$47,330
Kept after tax
$39,142
Worth in national money
$43,305
State rank
32
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. New Mexico pays tree trimmers and pruners around $47,330 at the midpoint, 32 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in New Mexico, this sits in the middle: 307 of 485 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $47,330 you keep $39,142 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $43,305 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $52,530, since top earners drag the number up.
- For tree trimmers and pruners the New Mexico median is $47,330, ranking 32 of 49 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.
- Tree trimmers and pruners ranks 307 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.
- Retained pay in New Mexico is $39,142 after the full tax stack, from $47,330. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $43,305 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $52,530 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Tree Trimmers and Pruners
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,070 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,330 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,740 |
| This salary | $47,330 |
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 | $39,142 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,210 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,927 |
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 | $46,001 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,330 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
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 tree trimmers and pruners in New Mexico earn under $47,330 and half over. The published range runs $45,070 at the tenth percentile to $62,740 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $39,142 take-home in New Mexico comes from $47,330. 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 307 of 485.
- Two cautions on $43,305, the adjusted value of that $47,330 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Mexico. 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 307 of 485 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for tree trimmers and pruners in New Mexico, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $45,070 to $62,740; 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 $39,142, from $47,330, assumes a single New Mexico 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 307 of 485 locally, and the state ranks 32 of 49 for it.
- This $43,305 adjusted figure, worked from $47,330, 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 307 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 307 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 $52,530, 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 $45,070 and the top tenth $62,740, so most people doing this work in New Mexico sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $43,305 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and New Mexico's own levy, $39,142 remains.
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 49 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 New Mexico is $52,530. 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 ($45,070 to $62,740) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Mexico rather than a national figure.
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 $43,305 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 $39,142 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.
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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.