Washington · BLS May 2025

How much do rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators make in Washington?

Rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Washington earn a median of $58,740 a year ($28.24 an hour), about $4,115 a month after federal and FICA tax. Figure from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. The survey counted 500 of these jobs in Washington in May 2025.

Median pay · Washington

$58,740A year, or $28 an hour.
Take-home a month$4,115After federal and FICA tax at 15.9%
Worth at national prices$54,891Prices here sit at 107 against 100
Against the nation16.2% belowNational median $70,070
What rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators earn in Washington, May 2025
PercentileAnnualHourly
10th percentile1 in 10 earn less$51,280$25
25th percentile$56,190$27
MedianHalf earn more, half less$58,740$28
75th percentile$72,580$35
90th percentile1 in 10 earn more$73,620$35
MeanAll pay divided by all jobs$67,430$32

Wage survey · BLS May 2025

How we got this
  1. Median wage in WashingtonBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$58,740
  2. Median hourly wagePublished separately by BLS, not divided out of the annual figure.$28.24
  3. Take-home after federal and FICA tax$4,115 a month at an effective rate of 15.9%.$49,378 a year
  4. Worth at national average pricesPrices in Washington sit at 107 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$54,891
  5. Against the national medianThe national median is $70,070.16.2% below
  6. Jobs countedA concentration of 1.11 against the nation's 1.00.500
What we assumed
  • Wages are BLS OEWS survey estimates for May 2025, not job postings or offers.
  • OEWS surveys wage and salary workers. The self-employed and business owners are outside it.
  • Take-home assumes one 2026 filer, filing single, taking the standard deduction, with no dependents, pre-tax retirement contributions or local income tax.
  • Regional price parities compare price levels between places in one year. They are not inflation, and they do not adjust for what a household actually buys.
Technical details

Method occupation-wage-v1Data bls-oews-2025-05-v1, us-tax-2026-v1, bea-rpp-2024-v1, census-acs5-2024-v1

What lands in the bank

Tax year 2026 · Interactive

Estimated on the median salary of $58,740 in Washington, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Explore other wage levels and filing statuses below.

$58,740
$50,000$75,000
Filing status:
Gross salary breakdown$58,740
Net 84%
Fed 8%
FICA 8%
Annual take-home$49,378After all taxes
Monthly deposit$4,115Estimated per month
Biweekly paycheck$1,899Every 2 weeks (26/yr)
Effective tax rate15.9%Total tax burden
Federal income tax$4,869 / yr
Washington state income taxNo state wage tax$0
FICA (Social Security & Medicare)$4,494 / yr

Run the numbers on your own pay

Same U.S. tax tables as the rest of the site. Change the salary, state, or filing status.

What $58,740 is worth in Washington

Prices in Washington sit at 107 against a national average of 100, so $58,740 earned here buys what $54,891 buys at national average prices.

  • Rents. 126 against 100, the component that moves most between states.
  • Against local households. The median household in Washington takes in $98,141, so this occupation's median is 0.6 times that, on one income.
  • How common the job is here. 11% more concentrated in Washington than in the country as a whole.

Compare two places properly →

Reading the numbers

What stands out for rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Washington

Washington does not tax wages, so the take-home figure above loses only federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare.

Rents in Washington index at 126 (U.S. = 100) while prices overall index at 107, a gap of +19 pts. For a renter, housing moves the local cost of living more than anything else.

Pay is tightly grouped: the 90th percentile ($73,620) is only 1.4 times the 10th ($51,280), so most rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators here earn within a narrow band.

The median for this job is 0.6 times the median household income in Washington ($98,141). Many households have two earners, so one paycheck at this level falls short of what a typical local household brings in.

Common questions

Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators pay in Washington, answered

How much do rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators make in Washington?

The median wage for rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Washington is $58,740 a year, or $28.24 an hour.

Half earn more than that and half earn less. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey for May 2025.

What is the average Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators salary in Washington?

BLS’s mean (average) wage for rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Washington is $67,430 a year. The median is $58,740.

The mean sits higher when a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. For a typical paycheck, the median is the better middle.

What is the hourly pay for rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Washington?

The median hourly wage is $28.24. At a full-time year that lines up with about $58,740 a year.

BLS May 2025; hourly and annual figures come from the same survey.

What is the starting salary for rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Washington?

BLS does not publish starting pay. The closest figure it does publish is the low end of the range: in Washington, the lowest-paid 10% of rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators earn under $51,280 a year and a quarter earn under $56,190 ($24.65 and $27.02 an hour).

New hires often start somewhere in that band, but the May 2025 survey does not record experience, so read it as a floor to compare an offer against rather than a typical first salary.

What is the salary range for rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Washington?

The overall salary range for rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Washington spans from $51,280 for the bottom 10% to $73,620 for top earners.

The middle 50% earn between $56,190 and $72,580 a year, with the overall median at $58,740.

What is the take-home pay for rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators in Washington?

On the median wage of $58,740, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $49,378 a year, or roughly $4,115 a month.

That is after federal and FICA tax, an effective rate of 15.9%.

Washington levies no state income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld for it.

How much does rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators make a month in Washington?

On the median annual salary of $58,740, estimated take-home pay is roughly $4,115 a month after federal, state, and FICA taxes.

For workers paid on a standard biweekly schedule (26 pay periods per year), each paycheck is approximately $1,899 net.

Do rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators earn more in Washington than in the rest of the country?

No. The median in Washington is 16.2% below the national median of $70,070.

Nominal pay is only half the comparison: prices in Washington sit at 107 against a national 100, so the gap in what the money buys is different from the gap in the salary.

Is $58,740 a good salary in Washington?

It is 0.6 times the median household income of $98,141. A household often has more than one earner, so a single salary at this level goes further than the ratio alone suggests.

Prices in Washington run at 107 against a national average of 100, with rents at 126, so $58,740 here buys about what $54,891 buys at national average prices.

What do the highest-paid rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators earn in Washington?

The top tenth earn $73,620 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $51,280.

Experience, specialty, employer and the part of Washington someone works in all move a wage inside that range; the survey reports the spread, not the reason for it.

How many rail-track laying and maintenance equipment operators are there in Washington?

The survey counted 500 of these jobs in Washington for May 2025.

That makes the occupation 11% more concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.

Sources

Where this data comes from

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