Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,704
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$11,886
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$57,121
Iowa costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Iowa — 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
$62,590
Kept after tax
$50,704
Worth in national money
$57,121
State rank
3
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Iowa is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $62,590, which ranks 3 of 47 states with published figures. That is about 28.95% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 195 among 493 occupations Iowa publishes pay for.
- Iowa is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $62,590 the take-home is $50,704; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $57,121 would nationally. The average lands at $57,770, below the middle of the range.
- Iowa ranks 3 of 47 states publishing a median for crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders, at $62,590 — about 28.95% 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.
- Position 195 of 493 in Iowa places crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Post-tax income for crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders in Iowa, on $62,590, is $50,704 — equivalent to $57,121 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 $57,770 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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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 | $44,840 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,780 |
| This salary | $62,590 |
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 Iowa | $50,704 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,471 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,124 |
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 | $60,391 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,779 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
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 Iowa earn under $62,590 and half over. The published range runs $44,840 at the tenth percentile to $64,780 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $50,704 take-home in Iowa comes from $62,590. 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 195 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Iowa, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $57,121, the adjusted value of that $62,590 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 195 of 493 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders in Iowa, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $44,840 to $64,780; 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 $50,704, from $62,590, assumes a single Iowa 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 195 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 3 of 47 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Iowa, so $57,121 — the adjusted value of that $62,590 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 195 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 $57,770 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 — $44,840 at the tenth percentile, $64,780 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $57,121.
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 Iowa's own levy, $50,704 remains.
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 Iowa is $57,770. 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 ($44,840 to $64,780) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Iowa rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Iowa'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 $57,121 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 $50,704 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Iowa 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.