Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, & Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, & Tenders, Metal & Plastic in New Mexico
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,062
after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax
Tax takes
$5,958
15.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,472
New Mexico costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Mexico — 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
$38,020
Kept after tax
$32,062
Worth in national money
$35,472
State rank
48
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. New Mexico pays this job a middle wage of $38,020, 48 of 48 states and about 18.32% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within New Mexico this is lower-paid work. Of 485 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 387. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- New Mexico is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $38,020 the take-home is $32,062; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $35,472 would nationally. The average comes to $40,490, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- New Mexico's $38,020 median for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic places it 48 of 48 states, about 18.32% 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 New Mexico reports, grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic ranks 387 of 485, 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.
- Post-tax income for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic in New Mexico, on $38,020, is $32,062 — equivalent to $35,472 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $40,490 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, & Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, & Tenders, Metal & Plastic
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $32,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,020 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,400 |
| This salary | $38,020 |
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 Mexico | $32,062 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,729 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,791 |
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 | $37,189 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,166 |
| 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 New Mexico earn less than $38,020. The published range is $32,220 up to $49,400, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $32,062 take-home in New Mexico comes from $38,020. 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 387 of 485.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $35,472 uses one figure for the whole of New Mexico. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 485 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 387.
- Reported values are medians; for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic in New Mexico the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $32,220 to $49,400. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $32,062, from $38,020, assumes a single New Mexico 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 387 of 485 locally, and the state ranks 48 of 48 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $35,472, worked from $38,020, 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 Mexico address, on work sitting at 387 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $40,490, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $32,220 at the bottom tenth to $49,400 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in New Mexico sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $35,472 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Mexico's own levy, $32,062 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 Mexico is $40,490. 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 ($32,220 to $49,400) 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 Mexico rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
New Mexico'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 $35,472 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 $32,062 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Mexico 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.