Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators in Indiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,649
after federal, FICA and Indiana tax
Tax takes
$9,891
18.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,350
Indiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Indiana — 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
$53,540
Kept after tax
$43,649
Worth in national money
$47,350
State rank
33
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Indiana pays this job around $53,540 at the midpoint, 33 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 269 among 493 occupations Indiana publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $53,540 you keep $43,649 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $47,350 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $56,680, since top earners drag the number up.
- For water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators the Indiana median is $53,540, ranking 33 of 50 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.
- Position 269 of 493 in Indiana places water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators 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.
- Retained pay in Indiana is $43,649 after the full tax stack, from $53,540. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $47,350 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $56,680 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,590 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $53,540 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,290 |
| This salary | $53,540 |
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 Indiana | $43,649 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $45,199 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$837 |
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 | $51,611 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,012 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Indiana earn less than $53,540. The published range is $40,590 up to $75,290, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $43,649 take-home in Indiana comes from $53,540. 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 269 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Indiana, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $47,350, the adjusted value of that $53,540 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 269 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators in Indiana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $40,590 to $75,290. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $43,649, from $53,540, assumes a single Indiana 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 269 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 33 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Indiana, so $47,350 — the adjusted value of that $53,540 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 269 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $56,680 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $40,590 at the tenth percentile, $75,290 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Indiana is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $47,350 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 Indiana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $43,649 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 Indiana is $56,680. 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 ($40,590 to $75,290) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Indiana rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Indiana'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 $47,350 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 $43,649 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Indiana 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.