Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,096
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$6,114
14.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,145
Texas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Texas — 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
$42,210
Kept after tax
$36,096
Worth in national money
$37,145
State rank
40
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Texas pays this job a middle wage of $42,210, 40 of 47 states and about 9.36% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Texas this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 374. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- No great distortion either way. Texas costs about what the country costs, so from $42,210, take-home of $36,096 is worth roughly $37,145 in national money. The average comes to $42,860, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Texas's $42,210 median for cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders places it 40 of 47 states, about 9.36% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Texas reports, cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders ranks 374 of 493, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Price parity in Texas is near the national base, so for cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders, whose median is $42,210, the adjusted figure of $37,145 differs little from $36,096 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $42,860 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,670 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $42,210 |
| Top tenth earn over | $52,740 |
| This salary | $42,210 |
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 Texas | $36,096 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $36,096 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,254 |
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 | $42,210 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,902 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
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 cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders in Texas earn under $42,210 and half over. The published range runs $34,670 at the tenth percentile to $52,740 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $36,096, from $42,210, 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 374 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $37,145, the adjusted value of that $42,210 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Texas. 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 374 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $34,670 to $52,740; 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 Texas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $36,096 from $42,210. 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 374 of 493 locally.
- This $37,145 adjusted figure, worked from $42,210, 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 374 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 374 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $34,670 and the top tenth $52,740, so most people doing this work in Texas sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Texas is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $37,145 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $36,096 of this wage reaches your account, because Texas takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($34,670 to $52,740) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Texas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Texas'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 $37,145 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?
Texas levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $36,096 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.