Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, & Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, & Tenders, Metal & Plastic in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,861
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$10,049
19.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,751
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$50,910
Kept after tax
$40,861
Worth in national money
$37,751
State rank
3
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Massachusetts is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $50,910, which ranks 3 of 48 states with published figures. That is about 9.37% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 349 among 485 occupations Massachusetts publishes pay for.
- Massachusetts is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $50,910 the take-home is $40,861; in national-average money that behaves like $37,751. The average comes to $54,320, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Massachusetts ranks 3 of 48 states publishing a median for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic, at $50,910 — about 9.37% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Position 349 of 485 in Massachusetts places grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & 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.
- Take-home for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic in Massachusetts, on $50,910, is $40,861; deflated by the state's price level, $37,751. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $54,320 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, & Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, & Tenders, Metal & Plastic
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,610 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $50,910 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,340 |
| This salary | $50,910 |
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 Massachusetts | $40,861 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,086 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,588 |
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 | $48,140 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,967 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $50,910 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $39,610 and the ninetieth is $75,340 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $40,861 take-home in Massachusetts comes from $50,910. 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 485.
- Two cautions on $37,751, the adjusted value of that $50,910 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Massachusetts. 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 485 locally.
- The Massachusetts median of $50,910 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $39,610 to $75,340. 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 $40,861, from $50,910, assumes a single Massachusetts 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 485 locally, and the state ranks 3 of 48 for it.
- This $37,751 adjusted figure, worked from $50,910, 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 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 349 of 485 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 $54,320 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $39,610 at the tenth percentile, $75,340 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Massachusetts costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $37,751 rather than its face figure.
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 Massachusetts adds its own income tax on top — which is why $40,861 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 48 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 Massachusetts is $54,320. 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 ($39,610 to $75,340) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Massachusetts rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $37,751 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 $40,861 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.