Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Louisiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,640
after federal, FICA and Louisiana tax
Tax takes
$8,290
17.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,870
Louisiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Louisiana — 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
$47,930
Kept after tax
$39,640
Worth in national money
$44,870
State rank
23
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Louisiana pays this job around $47,930 at the midpoint, 23 of 46 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 285 among 484 occupations Louisiana publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $47,930 you keep $39,640 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $44,870 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $59,600, since top earners drag the number up.
- For extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic the Louisiana median is $47,930, ranking 23 of 46 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 285 of 484 in Louisiana places extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Retained pay in Louisiana is $39,640 after the full tax stack, from $47,930. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $44,870 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $59,600 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,660 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,930 |
| Top tenth earn over | $108,530 |
| This salary | $47,930 |
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 Louisiana | $39,640 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,692 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,995 |
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 | $46,621 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,622 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $47,930 as a midpoint for Louisiana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $33,660 and the ninetieth is $108,530 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $39,640 take-home in Louisiana comes from $47,930. 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 285 of 484.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $44,870 uses one figure for the whole of Louisiana. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 484 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 285.
- The Louisiana median of $47,930 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $33,660 to $108,530. 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 $39,640, from $47,930, assumes a single Louisiana 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 285 of 484 locally, and the state ranks 23 of 46 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $44,870, worked from $47,930, 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 Louisiana address, on work sitting at 285 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $59,600, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $33,660 at the bottom tenth to $108,530 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Louisiana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $44,870 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Louisiana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $39,640 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 46 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 Louisiana is $59,600. 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 ($33,660) and the ninetieth ($108,530) 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?
Louisiana'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 $44,870 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 $39,640 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Louisiana 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.