Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$57,182
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$11,548
16.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,217
Alaska costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Alaska — 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
$68,730
Kept after tax
$57,182
Worth in national money
$56,217
State rank
2
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Alaska is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $68,730, which ranks 2 of 47 states with published figures. That is about 41.59% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Alaska, this sits in the middle: 215 of 430 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $68,730 the take-home is $57,182, which is worth about $56,217 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is lower, $63,070, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- Alaska ranks 2 of 47 states publishing a median for crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders, at $68,730 — about 41.59% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders ranks 215 of 430 occupations in Alaska 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.
- Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders on its $68,730 median: $57,182 retained after tax becomes $56,217 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $63,070 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
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Pay band: Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,310 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $68,730 |
| Top tenth earn over | $88,300 |
| This salary | $68,730 |
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 Alaska | $57,182 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $57,182 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,626 |
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 | $68,730 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,454 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
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 crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders in Alaska earn under $68,730 and half over. The published range runs $39,310 at the tenth percentile to $88,300 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Alaska's $57,182, worked from $68,730. 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 215 of 430.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $56,217 uses one figure for the whole of Alaska. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 430 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 215.
- Figures are distribution medians for crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,310 to $88,300; 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.
- The Alaska take-home of $57,182, on $68,730 for work ranking 215 of 430 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 215 of 430 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $56,217, worked from $68,730, 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 Alaska address, on work sitting at 215 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $63,070, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $39,310 at the tenth percentile, $88,300 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Alaska costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $56,217 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $57,182 survives, because Alaska levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 47 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 Alaska is $63,070. 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 ($39,310 to $88,300) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alaska rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Alaska's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $56,217 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Alaska levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $57,182 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.