Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Indiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,835
after federal, FICA and Indiana tax
Tax takes
$8,485
17.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,128
Indiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Indiana — 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
$47,320
Kept after tax
$38,835
Worth in national money
$42,128
State rank
35
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Indiana pays this job a middle wage of $47,320, 35 of 50 states and about 1.93% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 493 occupations Indiana reports figures for, this is number 339.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $47,320 you keep $38,835 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $42,128 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $51,210, since top earners drag the number up.
- Indiana's $47,320 median for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders places it 35 of 50 states, about 1.93% 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.
- In Indiana's occupational distribution, coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders sits at 339 of 493 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Retained pay in Indiana is $38,835 after the full tax stack, from $47,320. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $42,128 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $51,210 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,930 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,320 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,780 |
| This salary | $47,320 |
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 Indiana | $38,835 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,202 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$758 |
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 | $45,619 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$916 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Indiana earn less than $47,320. The published range is $35,930 up to $77,780, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $38,835 take-home in Indiana comes from $47,320. 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 339 of 493.
- Two cautions on $42,128, the adjusted value of that $47,320 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Indiana. 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 339 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Indiana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $35,930 to $77,780. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $38,835, from $47,320, assumes a single Indiana 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 339 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 35 of 50 for it.
- This $42,128 adjusted figure, worked from $47,320, 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 339 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 339 of 493 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 $51,210, 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $35,930 at the bottom tenth to $77,780 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $42,128.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Indiana then takes its own share, leaving $38,835.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Indiana is $51,210. 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 ($35,930) and the ninetieth ($77,780) 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?
Indiana'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 $42,128 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 $38,835 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Indiana 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.