Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, & Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, & Tenders, Metal & Plastic in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,987
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$7,463
16.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,970
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$44,450
Kept after tax
$36,987
Worth in national money
$33,970
State rank
32
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. New Jersey pays this job around $44,450 at the midpoint, 32 of 48 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 490 occupations New Jersey publishes, this job lands at 407. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $44,450 the take-home is $36,987. But New Jersey costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $33,970 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is higher, $45,940, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic the New Jersey median is $44,450, ranking 32 of 48 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within New Jersey, this work ranks 407 of 490 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.
- Retained pay after federal, FICA and New Jersey income tax is $36,987 for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic, from $44,450. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $33,970. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $45,940 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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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 | $32,490 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,450 |
| Top tenth earn over | $67,180 |
| This salary | $44,450 |
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 Jersey | $36,987 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,896 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,027 |
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 | $43,320 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,080 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in New Jersey earn less than $44,450. The published range is $32,490 up to $67,180, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In New Jersey the take-home figure of $36,987, from $44,450, 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 407 of 490 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $33,970, the adjusted value of that $44,450 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Jersey. 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 407 of 490 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic in New Jersey the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $32,490 to $67,180. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for New Jersey is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $36,987 from $44,450. 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 407 of 490 locally.
- This $33,970 adjusted figure, worked from $44,450, 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 407 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 407 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $45,940, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $32,490, the highest tenth $67,180, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. New Jersey costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $33,970 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and New Jersey's own levy, $36,987 remains.
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.
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 Jersey is $45,940. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($32,490) and the ninetieth ($67,180) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $33,970 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 $36,987 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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.