Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,842
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$8,018
16.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,406
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$47,860
Kept after tax
$39,842
Worth in national money
$39,406
State rank
31
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Arizona is 31 of 50 states for this job, with a middle wage of $47,860. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Arizona, this sits in the middle: 337 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Arizona costs about what the country costs, so from $47,860, take-home of $39,842 is worth roughly $39,406 in national money. The average comes to $53,580, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Arizona ranks 31 of 50 for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders at $47,860. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders ranks 337 of 491 occupations in Arizona 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.
- Price parity in Arizona is near the national base, so for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders, whose median is $47,860, the adjusted figure of $39,406 differs little from $39,842 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $53,580 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,360 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,860 |
| Top tenth earn over | $84,510 |
| This salary | $47,860 |
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 Arizona | $39,842 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,636 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,411 |
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 | $46,872 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,916 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Arizona earn under $47,860 and half over. The published range runs $34,360 at the tenth percentile to $84,510 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $39,842 take-home in Arizona comes from $47,860. 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 337 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Arizona, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $39,406, the adjusted value of that $47,860 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 337 of 491 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Arizona, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $34,360 to $84,510; 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 $39,842, from $47,860, assumes a single Arizona 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 337 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 31 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Arizona, so $39,406 — the adjusted value of that $47,860 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 337 of 491 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 $53,580, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $34,360, the highest tenth $84,510, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $39,406 of national purchasing power.
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 Arizona's own levy, $39,842 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 50 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 Arizona is $53,580. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($34,360) and the ninetieth ($84,510) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $39,406 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $39,842 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.