Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Tennessee
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,161
after federal, FICA and Tennessee tax
Tax takes
$6,619
14.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,248
Tennessee costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Tennessee — 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
$44,780
Kept after tax
$38,161
Worth in national money
$41,248
State rank
36
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Tennessee pays this job a middle wage of $44,780, 36 of 49 states and about 3.35% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 491 occupations Tennessee reports figures for, this is number 349.
- Tennessee is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $44,780 the take-home is $38,161; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $41,248 would nationally. The average lands at $43,980, below the middle of the range.
- Tennessee's $44,780 median for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic places it 36 of 49 states, about 3.35% 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.
- In Tennessee's occupational distribution, cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic sits at 349 of 491 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Post-tax income for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Tennessee, on $44,780, is $38,161 — equivalent to $41,248 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $43,980 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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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 | $35,620 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $53,300 |
| This salary | $44,780 |
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 Tennessee | $38,161 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,161 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,978 |
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 | $44,780 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,392 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Tennessee earn under $44,780 and half over. The published range runs $35,620 at the tenth percentile to $53,300 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $38,161 take-home in Tennessee comes from $44,780. 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 349 of 491.
- Two cautions on $41,248, the adjusted value of that $44,780 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Tennessee. 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 349 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Tennessee, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,620 to $53,300; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $38,161, from $44,780, assumes a single Tennessee 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 349 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 36 of 49 for it.
- This $41,248 adjusted figure, worked from $44,780, 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 349 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 349 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $35,620 and the top tenth $53,300, so most people doing this work in Tennessee sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Tennessee sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $41,248 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $38,161 of this wage reaches your account, because Tennessee takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($35,620 to $53,300) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Tennessee rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Tennessee'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 $41,248 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Tennessee levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $38,161 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.