Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Arkansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,189
after federal, FICA and Arkansas tax
Tax takes
$8,191
17.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,145
Arkansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arkansas — 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
$46,380
Kept after tax
$38,189
Worth in national money
$44,145
State rank
42
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Arkansas pays this job a middle wage of $46,380, 42 of 50 states and about 3.88% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 262 among 489 occupations Arkansas publishes pay for.
- Arkansas is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $46,380 the take-home is $38,189; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $44,145 would nationally. The average comes to $47,720, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Arkansas's $46,380 median for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders places it 42 of 50 states, about 3.88% 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.
- Position 262 of 489 in Arkansas places coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders 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.
- Post-tax income for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Arkansas, on $46,380, is $38,189 — equivalent to $44,145 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $47,720 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 | $34,910 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,380 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,950 |
| This salary | $46,380 |
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 Arkansas | $38,189 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,446 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,552 |
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 | $44,815 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,296 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Arkansas earn less than $46,380. The published range is $34,910 up to $61,950, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $38,189 take-home in Arkansas comes from $46,380. 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 262 of 489.
- Two cautions on $44,145, the adjusted value of that $46,380 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arkansas. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 262 of 489 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Arkansas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $34,910 to $61,950. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $38,189, from $46,380, assumes a single Arkansas 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 262 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 42 of 50 for it.
- This $44,145 adjusted figure, worked from $46,380, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 262 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 262 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $34,910 at the tenth percentile, $61,950 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Arkansas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $44,145 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Arkansas adds its own income tax on top — which is why $38,189 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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($34,910 to $61,950) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arkansas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Arkansas'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 $44,145 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 $38,189 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arkansas 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.