Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, & Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, & Tenders, Metal & Plastic in New Hampshire
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,607
after federal, FICA and New Hampshire tax
Tax takes
$6,973
15.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,597
New Hampshire costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Hampshire — 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
$46,580
Kept after tax
$39,607
Worth in national money
$37,597
State rank
19
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. New Hampshire is 19 of 48 states for this job, with a middle wage of $46,580. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within New Hampshire this is lower-paid work. Of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 390. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- New Hampshire is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $46,580 the take-home is $39,607; in national-average money that behaves like $37,597. The average comes to $48,230, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- New Hampshire ranks 19 of 48 for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic at $46,580. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation New Hampshire reports, grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic ranks 390 of 488, 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.
- Take-home for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic in New Hampshire, on $46,580, is $39,607; deflated by the state's price level, $37,597. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $48,230 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 | $38,730 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,580 |
| Top tenth earn over | $60,020 |
| This salary | $46,580 |
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 New Hampshire | $39,607 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,607 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,161 |
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 | $46,580 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,823 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 105 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $46,580 as a midpoint for New Hampshire, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $38,730 and the ninetieth is $60,020 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind New Hampshire's $39,607, worked from $46,580. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 390 of 488.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $37,597 uses one figure for the whole of New Hampshire. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 390.
- The New Hampshire median of $46,580 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $38,730 to $60,020. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The New Hampshire take-home of $39,607, on $46,580 for work ranking 390 of 488 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 390 of 488 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $37,597, worked from $46,580, 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 New Hampshire address, on work sitting at 390 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $48,230, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $38,730 at the tenth percentile, $60,020 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. New Hampshire costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $37,597 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $39,607 survives, because New Hampshire levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 New Hampshire is $48,230. 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 ($38,730 to $60,020) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Hampshire rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New Hampshire's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $37,597 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?
New Hampshire levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $39,607 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.