Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$37,951
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$8,979
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,262
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$46,930
Kept after tax
$37,951
Worth in national money
$35,262
State rank
22
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. New York is 22 of 49 states for this job, with a middle wage of $46,930. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within New York this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 403. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $46,930, tax leaves $37,951 — and because New York is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $35,262 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $50,330, since top earners drag the number up.
- New York ranks 22 of 49 for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic at $46,930. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation New York reports, cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic ranks 403 of 493, 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.
- After tax, $37,951 remains from the New York median of $46,930 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $35,262 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $50,330 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 | $36,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,930 |
| Top tenth earn over | $71,770 |
| This salary | $46,930 |
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 New York | $37,951 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,888 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,786 |
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 | $44,519 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,997 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in New York earn less than $46,930. The published range is $36,510 up to $71,770, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In New York the take-home figure of $37,951, from $46,930, 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 403 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $35,262, the adjusted value of that $46,930 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New York. 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 403 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in New York the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $36,510 to $71,770. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for New York is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $37,951 from $46,930. 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 403 of 493 locally.
- This $35,262 adjusted figure, worked from $46,930, 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 403 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 403 of 493 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 $50,330 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $36,510 at the bottom tenth to $71,770 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $35,262 of national purchasing power.
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 New York adds its own income tax on top — which is why $37,951 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 New York is $50,330. 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 ($36,510) and the ninetieth ($71,770) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $35,262 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $37,951 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.