Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Illinois
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,263
after federal, FICA and Illinois tax
Tax takes
$9,727
19.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,718
Illinois costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Illinois — 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
$48,990
Kept after tax
$39,263
Worth in national money
$39,718
State rank
8
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Illinois pays this job a middle wage of $48,990, ranking 8 of 49 states and sitting about 5.74% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Illinois, this sits in the middle: 337 of 494 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $48,990 the take-home is $39,263, which is worth about $39,718 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $51,740, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Illinois's median for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic is $48,990, about 5.74% above the national figure and 8 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic ranks 337 of 494 occupations in Illinois 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.
- Illinois's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic on its $48,990 median: $39,263 retained after tax becomes $39,718 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $51,740 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 | $36,960 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,990 |
| Top tenth earn over | $73,270 |
| This salary | $48,990 |
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 Illinois | $39,263 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,543 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,033 |
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 | $46,152 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,668 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $48,990 as a midpoint for Illinois, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $36,960 and the ninetieth is $73,270 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $39,263 take-home in Illinois comes from $48,990. 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 337 of 494.
- One number stands for prices across all of Illinois, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $39,718, the adjusted value of that $48,990 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 337 of 494 in the state.
- The Illinois median of $48,990 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $36,960 to $73,270. 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 $39,263, from $48,990, assumes a single Illinois 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 337 of 494 locally, and the state ranks 8 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Illinois, so $39,718 — the adjusted value of that $48,990 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 337 of 494 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $51,740, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $36,960, the highest tenth $73,270, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $39,718.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Illinois adds its own income tax on top — which is why $39,263 of this wage survives to your account.
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 Illinois is $51,740. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($36,960) and the ninetieth ($73,270) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Illinois'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 $39,718 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 $39,263 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Illinois 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.