Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Alaska
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,560
after federal, FICA and Alaska tax
Tax takes
$7,450
15.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,859
Alaska costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Alaska — 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
$49,010
Kept after tax
$41,560
Worth in national money
$40,859
State rank
7
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Alaska is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $49,010, which ranks 7 of 49 states with published figures. That is about 5.78% above the national middle.
- Against 430 occupations Alaska publishes, this job lands at 325. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $49,010, tax leaves $41,560, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $40,859 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $51,270, since top earners drag the number up.
- Alaska ranks 7 of 49 states publishing a median for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, at $49,010 — about 5.78% 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.
- Within Alaska, this work ranks 325 of 430 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Alaska sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic — median $49,010 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $41,560 retained, $40,859 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $51,270 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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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 | $43,770 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,010 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,470 |
| This salary | $49,010 |
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 Alaska | $41,560 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,560 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,909 |
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 | $49,010 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,309 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 102 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Alaska earn less than $49,010. The published range is $43,770 up to $62,470, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Alaska's $41,560, worked from $49,010. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 325 of 430.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $40,859, the adjusted value of that $49,010 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 325 of 430 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Alaska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $43,770 to $62,470. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Alaska take-home of $41,560, on $49,010 for work ranking 325 of 430 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 325 of 430 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $40,859 — the adjusted value of that $49,010 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 325 of 430 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $51,270, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $43,770 and the top tenth $62,470, so most people doing this work in Alaska sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Alaska run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $40,859 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $41,560 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. 49 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 Alaska is $51,270. 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 ($43,770 to $62,470) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alaska rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Alaska's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $40,859 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?
Alaska levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $41,560 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.