Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Alabama
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,525
after federal, FICA and Alabama tax
Tax takes
$8,305
18.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,485
Alabama costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Alabama — 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
$43,830
Kept after tax
$35,525
Worth in national money
$39,485
State rank
38
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Alabama pays this job a middle wage of $43,830, 38 of 49 states and about 5.4% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Alabama, this sits in the middle: 319 of 482 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Alabama is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $43,830 the take-home is $35,525; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $39,485 would nationally. The average lands at $43,760, below the middle of the range.
- Alabama's $43,830 median for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic places it 38 of 49 states, about 5.4% 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.
- Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic ranks 319 of 482 occupations in Alabama 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.
- Post-tax income for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Alabama, on $43,830, is $35,525 — equivalent to $39,485 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 $43,760 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,660 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,830 |
| Top tenth earn over | $54,760 |
| This salary | $43,830 |
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 Alabama | $35,525 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,397 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,001 |
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 | $41,500 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,210 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $43,830 as a midpoint for Alabama, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,660 and the ninetieth is $54,760 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $35,525 take-home in Alabama comes from $43,830. 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 319 of 482.
- Two cautions on $39,485, the adjusted value of that $43,830 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alabama. 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 319 of 482 locally.
- The Alabama median of $43,830 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,660 to $54,760. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $35,525, from $43,830, assumes a single Alabama 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 319 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 49 for it.
- This $39,485 adjusted figure, worked from $43,830, 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 319 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 319 of 482 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $34,660 at the tenth percentile, $54,760 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Alabama sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $39,485 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Alabama then takes its own share, leaving $35,525.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($34,660 to $54,760) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alabama rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Alabama'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 $39,485 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 $35,525 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Alabama 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.