Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,517
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$9,483
19.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,963
Illinois costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Illinois — 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
$48,000
Kept after tax
$38,517
Worth in national money
$38,963
State rank
26
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Illinois is 26 of 50 states for this job, with a middle wage of $48,000. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 353 among 494 occupations Illinois publishes pay for.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $48,000 the take-home is $38,517, which is worth about $38,963 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $52,330, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Illinois ranks 26 of 50 for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders at $48,000. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Position 353 of 494 in Illinois 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.
- Illinois's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders on its $48,000 median: $38,517 retained after tax becomes $38,963 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $52,330 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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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 | $36,930 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,920 |
| This salary | $48,000 |
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 Illinois | $38,517 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,748 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,970 |
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 | $45,223 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,592 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $48,000 as a midpoint for Illinois, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,930 and the ninetieth is $75,920 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Illinois the take-home figure of $38,517, from $48,000, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 353 of 494 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $38,963, the adjusted value of that $48,000 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Illinois. 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 353 of 494 locally.
- The Illinois median of $48,000 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,930 to $75,920. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Illinois is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $38,517 from $48,000. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 353 of 494 locally.
- This $38,963 adjusted figure, worked from $48,000, 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 353 of 494 in the state. The occupation ranks 353 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $52,330, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $36,930 and the top tenth $75,920 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Illinois sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $38,963 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 Illinois's own levy, $38,517 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 Illinois is $52,330. 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 ($36,930) and the ninetieth ($75,920) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Illinois'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 $38,963 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 $38,517 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Illinois 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.