Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,923
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$6,317
14.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,913
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$43,240
Kept after tax
$36,923
Worth in national money
$41,913
State rank
34
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in South Dakota. The middle earner gets $43,240. That is 34 of 45 states, and about 5.51% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 457 occupations South Dakota publishes, this job lands at 354. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- South Dakota is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $43,240 the take-home is $36,923; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $41,913 would nationally. The average comes to $45,880, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders, South Dakota sits in the lower band at $43,240, ranking 34 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 5.51%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within South Dakota, this work ranks 354 of 457 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Post-tax income for extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders in South Dakota, on $43,240, is $36,923 — equivalent to $41,913 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 $45,880 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,090 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,460 |
| This salary | $43,240 |
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 South Dakota | $36,923 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,923 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,916 |
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 | $43,240 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,736 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in South Dakota earn less than $43,240. The published range is $36,090 up to $61,460, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In South Dakota the take-home figure of $36,923, from $43,240, 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 354 of 457 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $41,913, the adjusted value of that $43,240 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Dakota. 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 354 of 457 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders in South Dakota the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $36,090 to $61,460. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for South Dakota is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $36,923 from $43,240. 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 354 of 457 locally.
- This $41,913 adjusted figure, worked from $43,240, 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 354 of 457 in the state. The occupation ranks 354 of 457 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $45,880, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $36,090 and the top tenth $61,460, so most people doing this work in South Dakota sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $41,913.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $36,923 of this wage reaches your account, because South Dakota 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?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 45 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 South Dakota is $45,880. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($36,090 to $61,460) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Dakota'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 $41,913 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?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $36,923 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.