Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,354
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$8,436
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,084
Virginia costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Virginia — 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
$44,790
Kept after tax
$36,354
Worth in national money
$36,084
State rank
31
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Virginia sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $44,790, ranking 31 of 47 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Measured against other jobs in Virginia, this one sits low: 379 of 489 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $44,790, tax leaves $36,354, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $36,084 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $45,740, since top earners drag the number up.
- Virginia occupies the middle band for cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders: a median of $44,790, ranking 31 of 47. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders occupies position 379 of 489 in Virginia's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders — median $44,790 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $36,354 retained, $36,084 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $45,740 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,980 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,790 |
| Top tenth earn over | $54,820 |
| This salary | $44,790 |
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 Virginia | $36,354 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,169 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,195 |
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 | $42,531 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,864 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 Virginia earn under $44,790 and half over. The published range runs $35,980 at the tenth percentile to $54,820 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $36,354 take-home in Virginia comes from $44,790. 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 379 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $36,084, the adjusted value of that $44,790 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 379 of 489 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,980 to $54,820; 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 $36,354, from $44,790, assumes a single Virginia 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 379 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 31 of 47 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $36,084 — the adjusted value of that $44,790 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 379 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $35,980 and the top tenth $54,820, so most people doing this work in Virginia sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $36,084 of national purchasing power.
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 Virginia's own levy, $36,354 remains.
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 ($35,980 to $54,820) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Virginia rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Virginia's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $36,084 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 $36,354 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Virginia 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.