Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, & Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, & Tenders, Metal & Plastic in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,004
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$8,646
18.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,004
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$47,650
Kept after tax
$39,004
Worth in national money
$40,004
State rank
14
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Pennsylvania's middle earner gets $47,650, putting the state 14 of 48 — about 2.36% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 344 among 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $47,650, tax leaves $39,004, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $40,004 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $47,840, since top earners drag the number up.
- For grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic, Pennsylvania sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $47,650, ranking 14 of 48 and running about 2.36% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Position 344 of 492 in Pennsylvania 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.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic — median $47,650 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $39,004 retained, $40,004 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $47,840 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $36,540 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,650 |
| Top tenth earn over | $60,040 |
| This salary | $47,650 |
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 Pennsylvania | $39,004 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,467 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,639 |
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 | $45,829 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,982 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic in Pennsylvania earn under $47,650 and half over. The published range runs $36,540 at the tenth percentile to $60,040 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Pennsylvania's $39,004, worked from $47,650. 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 344 of 492.
- Two cautions on $40,004, the adjusted value of that $47,650 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Pennsylvania. 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 344 of 492 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic in Pennsylvania, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,540 to $60,040; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Pennsylvania take-home of $39,004, on $47,650 for work ranking 344 of 492 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 344 of 492 in the state.
- This $40,004 adjusted figure, worked from $47,650, 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 344 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 344 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $36,540 at the tenth percentile, $60,040 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Pennsylvania is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $40,004 in national terms.
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 Pennsylvania's own levy, $39,004 remains.
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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($36,540 to $60,040) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Pennsylvania rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Pennsylvania'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 $40,004 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 $39,004 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.