Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,732
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$7,248
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,236
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$47,980
Kept after tax
$40,732
Worth in national money
$46,236
State rank
28
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. South Dakota pays this job around $47,980 at the midpoint, 28 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 457 occupations South Dakota reports figures for, this is number 287.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $47,980 you keep $40,732 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $46,236 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $49,640, since top earners drag the number up.
- For coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders the South Dakota median is $47,980, ranking 28 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.
- In South Dakota's occupational distribution, coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders sits at 287 of 457 — 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 South Dakota is $40,732 after the full tax stack, from $47,980. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $46,236 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $49,640 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 | $37,750 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,980 |
| Top tenth earn over | $68,290 |
| This salary | $47,980 |
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 South Dakota | $40,732 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,732 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,320 |
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 | $47,980 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,225 |
| 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 South Dakota earn under $47,980 and half over. The published range runs $37,750 at the tenth percentile to $68,290 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $40,732 take-home in South Dakota comes from $47,980. 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 287 of 457.
- Two cautions on $46,236, the adjusted value of that $47,980 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Dakota. 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 287 of 457 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in South Dakota, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $37,750 to $68,290; 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 $40,732, from $47,980, assumes a single South Dakota 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 287 of 457 locally, and the state ranks 28 of 50 for it.
- This $46,236 adjusted figure, worked from $47,980, 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 287 of 457 in the state. The occupation ranks 287 of 457 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 $49,640 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $37,750 at the tenth percentile, $68,290 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in South Dakota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $46,236 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $40,732 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 South Dakota is $49,640. 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 ($37,750 to $68,290) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Dakota'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 $46,236 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $40,732 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.