Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,306
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$10,934
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,446
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$58,240
Kept after tax
$47,306
Worth in national money
$43,446
State rank
3
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. New Jersey pays this job a middle wage of $58,240, ranking 3 of 50 states and sitting about 20.7% above the national middle.
- Against other work in New Jersey, this sits in the middle: 304 of 490 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $58,240 the take-home is $47,306. But New Jersey costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $43,446 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is higher, $59,640, because the best-paid pull it up.
- New Jersey's median for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders is $58,240, about 20.7% above the national figure and 3 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders ranks 304 of 490 occupations in New Jersey 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.
- Retained pay after federal, FICA and New Jersey income tax is $47,306 for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders, from $58,240. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $43,446. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $59,640 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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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 | $37,780 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $82,850 |
| This salary | $58,240 |
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 New Jersey | $47,306 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,976 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,953 |
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 | $56,162 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,409 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
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 New Jersey earn under $58,240 and half over. The published range runs $37,780 at the tenth percentile to $82,850 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In New Jersey the take-home figure of $47,306, from $58,240, 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 304 of 490 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $43,446, the adjusted value of that $58,240 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Jersey. 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 304 of 490 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in New Jersey, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $37,780 to $82,850; 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 New Jersey is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $47,306 from $58,240. 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 304 of 490 locally.
- This $43,446 adjusted figure, worked from $58,240, 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 304 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 304 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $37,780, the highest tenth $82,850, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $43,446 of national purchasing power.
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; New Jersey then takes its own share, leaving $47,306.
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.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($37,780) and the ninetieth ($82,850) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $43,446 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $47,306 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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.