Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,897
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$9,043
18.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,568
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — 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
$49,940
Kept after tax
$40,897
Worth in national money
$44,568
State rank
40
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Missouri pays this job a middle wage of $49,940, 40 of 50 states and about 16.79% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 488 occupations Missouri reports figures for, this is number 295.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $49,940 you keep $40,897 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $44,568 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $53,190, since top earners drag the number up.
- Missouri's $49,940 median for water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators places it 40 of 50 states, about 16.79% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- In Missouri's occupational distribution, water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators sits at 295 of 488 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Retained pay in Missouri is $40,897 after the full tax stack, from $49,940. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $44,568 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $53,190 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 | $38,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,930 |
| This salary | $49,940 |
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 Missouri | $40,897 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,307 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,032 |
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 | $48,185 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,248 |
| 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 Missouri earn less than $49,940. The published range is $38,600 up to $64,930, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Missouri's $40,897, worked from $49,940. 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 295 of 488.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $44,568 uses one figure for the whole of Missouri. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 295.
- Reported values are medians; for water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators in Missouri the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $38,600 to $64,930. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Missouri take-home of $40,897, on $49,940 for work ranking 295 of 488 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 295 of 488 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $44,568, worked from $49,940, 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 Missouri address, on work sitting at 295 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $53,190, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $38,600 at the tenth percentile, $64,930 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Missouri sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $44,568 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Missouri's own levy, $40,897 remains.
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 Missouri is $53,190. 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 ($38,600 to $64,930) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Missouri rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri'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 $44,568 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 $40,897 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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.