Industrial Machinery Mechanics in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$58,291
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$16,109
21.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,777
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$74,400
Kept after tax
$58,291
Worth in national money
$51,777
State rank
12
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. California pays this job a middle wage of $74,400, ranking 12 of 51 states and sitting about 15.31% above the national middle.
- Against other work in California, this sits in the middle: 234 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- California is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $74,400 the take-home is $58,291; in national-average money that behaves like $51,777. The average comes to $76,060, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- California's median for industrial machinery mechanics is $74,400, about 15.31% above the national figure and 12 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Industrial machinery mechanics ranks 234 of 492 occupations in California by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Take-home for industrial machinery mechanics in California, on $74,400, is $58,291; deflated by the state's price level, $51,777. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $76,060 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Industrial Machinery Mechanics
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,880 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $74,400 |
| Top tenth earn over | $107,700 |
| This salary | $74,400 |
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 California | $58,291 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,170 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$11,172 |
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 | $70,307 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,494 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $74,400 as a midpoint for California, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,880 and the ninetieth is $107,700 — 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 California's $58,291, worked from $74,400. 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 234 of 492.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $51,777 uses one figure for the whole of California. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 492 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 234.
- The California median of $74,400 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,880 to $107,700. 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 California take-home of $58,291, on $74,400 for work ranking 234 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 234 of 492 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $51,777, worked from $74,400, 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 California address, on work sitting at 234 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $47,880, the highest tenth $107,700, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $51,777 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and California adds its own income tax on top — which is why $58,291 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($47,880) and the ninetieth ($107,700) 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?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $51,777 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 $58,291 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.