Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,753
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$9,247
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,007
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$38,753
Worth in national money
$36,007
State rank
27
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. New York pays this job around $48,000 at the midpoint, 27 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 493 occupations New York publishes, this job lands at 387. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $48,000, tax leaves $38,753 — and because New York is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $36,007 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $53,670, since top earners drag the number up.
- For coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders the New York median is $48,000, ranking 27 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.
- Within New York, this work ranks 387 of 493 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After tax, $38,753 remains from the New York median of $48,000 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $36,007 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $53,670 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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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 | $37,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,850 |
| 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 New York | $38,753 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,748 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,926 |
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 | $45,517 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,166 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
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 York earn under $48,000 and half over. The published range runs $37,510 at the tenth percentile to $77,850 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $38,753 take-home in New York comes from $48,000. 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 387 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $36,007 uses one figure for the whole of New York. 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 387.
- Figures are distribution medians for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in New York, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $37,510 to $77,850; 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.
- Retained pay of $38,753, from $48,000, assumes a single New York 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 387 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 27 of 50 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $36,007, worked from $48,000, 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 New York address, on work sitting at 387 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $53,670 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $37,510, the highest tenth $77,850, 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 $36,007 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and New York adds its own income tax on top — which is why $38,753 of this wage survives to your account.
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 New York is $53,670. 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 ($37,510) and the ninetieth ($77,850) 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 York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $36,007 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 $38,753 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.