Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Georgia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,751
after federal, FICA and Georgia tax
Tax takes
$8,329
18.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,006
Georgia costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Georgia — 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
$45,080
Kept after tax
$36,751
Worth in national money
$38,006
State rank
35
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Georgia pays this job a middle wage of $45,080, 35 of 49 states and about 2.7% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Georgia, this sits in the middle: 362 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Georgia does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $45,080 you keep $36,751, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $38,006 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $47,040, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Georgia's $45,080 median for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic places it 35 of 49 states, about 2.7% 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 362 of 492 occupations in Georgia 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.
- After federal, FICA and Georgia income tax, retained pay for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic on $45,080 is $36,751. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $38,006 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $47,040 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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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 | $35,400 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $45,080 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,740 |
| This salary | $45,080 |
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 Georgia | $36,751 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,402 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,513 |
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 | $43,026 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,829 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Georgia earn less than $45,080. The published range is $35,400 up to $63,740, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Georgia the take-home figure of $36,751, from $45,080, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 362 of 492 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $38,006 uses one figure for the whole of Georgia. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 492 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 362.
- Reported values are medians; for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Georgia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $35,400 to $63,740. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Georgia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $36,751 from $45,080. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 362 of 492 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $38,006, worked from $45,080, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Georgia address, on work sitting at 362 of 492 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 $47,040 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 $35,400 at the bottom tenth to $63,740 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Georgia sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $38,006 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Georgia's own levy, $36,751 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 Georgia is $47,040. 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 ($35,400 to $63,740) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Georgia rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Georgia'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 $38,006 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 $36,751 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Georgia 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.