Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,706
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$9,404
18.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,138
Colorado costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Colorado — 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
$51,110
Kept after tax
$41,706
Worth in national money
$41,138
State rank
8
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Colorado pays this job a middle wage of $51,110, ranking 8 of 46 states and sitting about 7.1% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Colorado, this sits in the middle: 340 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Colorado costs about what the country costs, so from $51,110, take-home of $41,706 is worth roughly $41,138 in national money. The average lands at $50,950, below the middle of the range.
- Colorado's median for extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic is $51,110, about 7.1% above the national figure and 8 of 46 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic ranks 340 of 491 occupations in Colorado 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.
- Price parity in Colorado is near the national base, so for extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, whose median is $51,110, the adjusted figure of $41,138 differs little from $41,706 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $50,950 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $41,020 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,110 |
| Top tenth earn over | $60,720 |
| This salary | $51,110 |
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 Colorado | $41,706 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,247 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,366 |
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 | $49,193 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,071 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $51,110 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $41,020 and the ninetieth is $60,720 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $41,706 take-home in Colorado comes from $51,110. 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 340 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Colorado, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $41,138, the adjusted value of that $51,110 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 340 of 491 in the state.
- The Colorado median of $51,110 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $41,020 to $60,720. 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 $41,706, from $51,110, assumes a single Colorado 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 340 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 8 of 46 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Colorado, so $41,138 — the adjusted value of that $51,110 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 340 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $41,020 at the bottom tenth to $60,720 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $41,138 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 Colorado adds its own income tax on top — which is why $41,706 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 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 ($41,020 to $60,720) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Colorado rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Colorado's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $41,138 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 $41,706 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Colorado 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.