Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,701
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$7,730
15.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,333
Washington costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Washington — 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
$50,430
Kept after tax
$42,701
Worth in national money
$39,333
State rank
7
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Washington is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $50,430, which ranks 7 of 47 states with published figures. That is about 8.29% above the national middle.
- Within Washington this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 385. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $50,430, tax leaves $42,701 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $39,333 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $54,190, since top earners drag the number up.
- Washington ranks 7 of 47 states publishing a median for cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders, at $50,430 — about 8.29% 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.
- Against every occupation Washington reports, cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders ranks 385 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.
- After tax, $42,701 remains from the Washington median of $50,430 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $39,333 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $54,190 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 | $42,470 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $50,430 |
| Top tenth earn over | $70,510 |
| This salary | $50,430 |
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 Washington | $42,701 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,701 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,609 |
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 | $50,430 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,574 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Washington earn less than $50,430. The published range is $42,470 up to $70,510, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $42,701 take-home in Washington comes from $50,430. 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 385 of 493.
- Two cautions on $39,333, the adjusted value of that $50,430 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Washington. 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 385 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders in Washington the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $42,470 to $70,510. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $42,701, from $50,430, assumes a single Washington 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 385 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 7 of 47 for it.
- This $39,333 adjusted figure, worked from $50,430, 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 385 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 385 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 $54,190 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $42,470 at the bottom tenth to $70,510 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Washington costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $39,333 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $42,701 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?
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.
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 Washington is $54,190. 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 ($42,470 to $70,510) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Washington rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Washington's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $39,333 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?
Washington levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $42,701 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.