Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Louisiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,656
after federal, FICA and Louisiana tax
Tax takes
$8,294
17.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,887
Louisiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Louisiana — 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
$47,950
Kept after tax
$39,656
Worth in national money
$44,887
State rank
29
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Louisiana pays this job around $47,950 at the midpoint, 29 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Louisiana, this sits in the middle: 284 of 484 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Louisiana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $47,950 the take-home is $39,656; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $44,887 would nationally. The average comes to $50,140, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders the Louisiana median is $47,950, ranking 29 of 50 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders ranks 284 of 484 occupations in Louisiana 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 Louisiana, on $47,950, is $39,656 — equivalent to $44,887 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 $50,140 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 | $35,590 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,330 |
| This salary | $47,950 |
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 Louisiana | $39,656 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,708 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,996 |
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 | $46,640 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,623 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
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 Louisiana earn under $47,950 and half over. The published range runs $35,590 at the tenth percentile to $63,330 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Louisiana the take-home figure of $39,656, from $47,950, 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 284 of 484 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $44,887 uses one figure for the whole of Louisiana. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 484 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 284.
- Figures are distribution medians for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Louisiana, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,590 to $63,330; 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.
- Take-home for Louisiana is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $39,656 from $47,950. 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 284 of 484 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $44,887, worked from $47,950, 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 Louisiana address, on work sitting at 284 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $50,140, 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 $35,590 and the top tenth $63,330, so most people doing this work in Louisiana sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Louisiana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $44,887 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 Louisiana's own levy, $39,656 remains.
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 Louisiana is $50,140. 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 ($35,590 to $63,330) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Louisiana rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Louisiana'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 $44,887 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 $39,656 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Louisiana 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.