Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Delaware
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,894
after federal, FICA and Delaware tax
Tax takes
$7,746
18.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,149
Delaware costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Delaware — 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
$41,640
Kept after tax
$33,894
Worth in national money
$34,149
State rank
43
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Delaware pays this job a middle wage of $41,640, 43 of 49 states and about 10.12% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Delaware this is lower-paid work. Of 445 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 355. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- No great distortion either way. Delaware costs about what the country costs, so from $41,640, take-home of $33,894 is worth roughly $34,149 in national money. The average comes to $44,700, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Delaware's $41,640 median for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic places it 43 of 49 states, about 10.12% 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 Delaware reports, cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic ranks 355 of 445, 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 Delaware is near the national base, so for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, whose median is $41,640, the adjusted figure of $34,149 differs little from $33,894 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $44,700 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,260 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $41,640 |
| Top tenth earn over | $57,860 |
| This salary | $41,640 |
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 Delaware | $33,894 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $35,638 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,525 |
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 | $39,469 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,054 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Delaware earn less than $41,640. The published range is $38,260 up to $57,860, 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 Delaware's $33,894, worked from $41,640. 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 355 of 445.
- Two cautions on $34,149, the adjusted value of that $41,640 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Delaware. 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 355 of 445 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Delaware the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $38,260 to $57,860. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Delaware take-home of $33,894, on $41,640 for work ranking 355 of 445 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 355 of 445 in the state.
- This $34,149 adjusted figure, worked from $41,640, 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 355 of 445 in the state. The occupation ranks 355 of 445 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $44,700, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $38,260 and the top tenth $57,860, so most people doing this work in Delaware sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $34,149.
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 Delaware's own levy, $33,894 remains.
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.
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 Delaware is $44,700. 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 ($38,260 to $57,860) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Delaware rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Delaware'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 $34,149 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 $33,894 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Delaware 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.