Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$37,944
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$6,566
14.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,951
Washington costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Washington — 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
$44,510
Kept after tax
$37,944
Worth in national money
$34,951
State rank
31
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Washington. The middle earner gets $44,510. That is 31 of 45 states, and about 2.73% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 493 occupations Washington publishes, this job lands at 453. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $44,510, tax leaves $37,944 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $34,951 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $49,800, since top earners drag the number up.
- For extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders, Washington sits in the lower band at $44,510, ranking 31 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 2.73%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Washington, this work ranks 453 of 493 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.
- After tax, $37,944 remains from the Washington median of $44,510 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $34,951 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $49,800 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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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 | $39,560 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,510 |
| Top tenth earn over | $69,960 |
| This salary | $44,510 |
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 Washington | $37,944 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,944 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,096 |
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 | $44,510 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,953 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
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 extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders in Washington earn under $44,510 and half over. The published range runs $39,560 at the tenth percentile to $69,960 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $37,944 take-home in Washington comes from $44,510. 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 453 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $34,951 uses one figure for the whole of Washington. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 453.
- Figures are distribution medians for extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,560 to $69,960; 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 $37,944, from $44,510, assumes a single Washington 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 453 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 31 of 45 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $34,951, worked from $44,510, 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 Washington address, on work sitting at 453 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 $49,800 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $39,560 at the bottom tenth to $69,960 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 $34,951 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $37,944 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 45 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Washington is $49,800. 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 ($39,560 to $69,960) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Washington rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Washington's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $34,951 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Washington levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $37,944 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.