Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,554
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$8,776
17.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,686
Iowa costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Iowa — 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
$49,330
Kept after tax
$40,554
Worth in national money
$45,686
State rank
20
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Iowa is 20 of 50 states for this job, with a middle wage of $49,330. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Iowa, this sits in the middle: 304 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Iowa is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $49,330 the take-home is $40,554; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $45,686 would nationally. The average comes to $51,360, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Iowa ranks 20 of 50 for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders at $49,330. 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 304 of 493 occupations in Iowa 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.
- Post-tax income for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Iowa, on $49,330, is $40,554 — equivalent to $45,686 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 $51,360 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 | $37,150 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,330 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,970 |
| This salary | $49,330 |
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 Iowa | $40,554 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,817 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,653 |
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 | $47,758 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,209 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $49,330 as a midpoint for Iowa, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,150 and the ninetieth is $64,970 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Iowa's $40,554, worked from $49,330. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 304 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $45,686 uses one figure for the whole of Iowa. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 304.
- The Iowa median of $49,330 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,150 to $64,970. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Iowa take-home of $40,554, on $49,330 for work ranking 304 of 493 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 304 of 493 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $45,686, worked from $49,330, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Iowa address, on work sitting at 304 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $51,360, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $37,150 and the top tenth $64,970, so most people doing this work in Iowa sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $45,686.
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; Iowa then takes its own share, leaving $40,554.
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.
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 Iowa is $51,360. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($37,150 to $64,970) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Iowa rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Iowa'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 $45,686 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 $40,554 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Iowa 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.