Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, & Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, & Tenders, Metal & Plastic in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,513
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$7,227
17.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,244
Montana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Montana — 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
$41,740
Kept after tax
$34,513
Worth in national money
$38,244
State rank
41
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Montana pays this job a middle wage of $41,740, 41 of 48 states and about 10.33% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Montana this is lower-paid work. Of 475 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 388. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where Montana does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $41,740 you keep $34,513, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $38,244 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $42,390, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Montana's $41,740 median for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic places it 41 of 48 states, about 10.33% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Montana reports, grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic ranks 388 of 475, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- After federal, FICA and Montana income tax, retained pay for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic on $41,740 is $34,513. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $38,244 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $42,390 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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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 | $34,590 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $41,740 |
| Top tenth earn over | $53,580 |
| This salary | $41,740 |
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 Montana | $34,513 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $35,718 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,488 |
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 | $40,240 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,799 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Montana earn less than $41,740. The published range is $34,590 up to $53,580, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $34,513 take-home in Montana comes from $41,740. 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 388 of 475.
- Two cautions on $38,244, the adjusted value of that $41,740 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Montana. 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 388 of 475 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic in Montana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $34,590 to $53,580. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $34,513, from $41,740, assumes a single Montana 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 388 of 475 locally, and the state ranks 41 of 48 for it.
- This $38,244 adjusted figure, worked from $41,740, 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 388 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 388 of 475 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $34,590 at the tenth percentile, $53,580 at the ninetieth.
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 $38,244.
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 Montana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $34,513 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 48 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($34,590 to $53,580) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Montana rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Montana'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 $38,244 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 $34,513 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Montana 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.