Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, & Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, & Tenders, Metal & Plastic in South Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,911
after federal, FICA and South Carolina tax
Tax takes
$8,129
16.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,833
South Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Carolina — 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
$48,040
Kept after tax
$39,911
Worth in national money
$42,833
State rank
11
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. South Carolina's middle earner gets $48,040, putting the state 11 of 48 — about 3.2% ahead of the national figure.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 492 occupations South Carolina reports figures for, this is number 294.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $48,040 you keep $39,911 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $42,833 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $49,970, since top earners drag the number up.
- For grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic, South Carolina sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $48,040, ranking 11 of 48 and running about 3.2% 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.
- In South Carolina's occupational distribution, grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic sits at 294 of 492 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Retained pay in South Carolina is $39,911 after the full tax stack, from $48,040. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $42,833 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $49,970 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 | $38,540 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,040 |
| Top tenth earn over | $60,050 |
| This salary | $48,040 |
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 South Carolina | $39,911 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,780 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$868 |
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 | $46,958 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,049 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
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 South Carolina earn under $48,040 and half over. The published range runs $38,540 at the tenth percentile to $60,050 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $39,911 take-home in South Carolina comes from $48,040. 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 294 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of South Carolina, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $42,833, the adjusted value of that $48,040 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 294 of 492 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for grinding, lapping, polishing, & buffing machine tool setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic in South Carolina, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $38,540 to $60,050; 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.
- Retained pay of $39,911, from $48,040, assumes a single South Carolina 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 294 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 11 of 48 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for South Carolina, so $42,833 — the adjusted value of that $48,040 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 294 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $49,970, 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 $38,540 at the bottom tenth to $60,050 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 South Carolina sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $42,833 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 South Carolina's own levy, $39,911 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.
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 South Carolina is $49,970. 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 ($38,540 to $60,050) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Carolina rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Carolina'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 $42,833 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 $39,911 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and South Carolina 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.