Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining Salary

Yes — at the median salary of $66K, rent takes 26.1% of take-home pay. A 2-bedroom at the HUD Fair Market Rent runs $1,129/month. That stays under the 30% guideline most financial planners use.

The 10th-percentile wage — what new excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface minings typically earn — is $41K/year. Take-home on that works out to about $2,459/month. At HUD’s $1,129/month FMR, rent would take 46% of that take-home — above the 30% guideline, so a 1-bedroom or shared housing is likely necessary starting out.

Local pay is 15% above the national median — $66K here vs. $57K nationally.

Montana pays $66K median vs. the U.S. average of $57K — that’s +15%. After adjusting for local cost of living (RPP 97), the purchasing-power equivalent is $68K — still ahead of the national median.

The median is $65,850 a year, that works out to about $32 an hour. But the range is wide: entry-level workers start around $40,990, and experienced excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface minings can clear $92,910. These are BLS numbers, based on employer-reported data, not self-reported surveys.

On that salary, you'd take home roughly $4,328/month after taxes. A 2-bedroom here rents for about $1,129/month, which eats 26.1% of your paycheck. That's under the 30% guideline most financial planners use, so the numbers work.

Montana has a Regional Price Parity of 97 (100 is the national average). That's below average, your money stretches further here than the raw salary number suggests. After cost-of-living adjustment, the median excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining salary is worth about $67,887 in national-average purchasing power.

The table above ranks every state by median pay for this role. Keep in mind that the highest-paying states tend to have the highest costs of living, so the top salary doesn't always mean the most money in your pocket.