Industrial Machinery Mechanics in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,516
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$12,324
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,836
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
$63,840
Kept after tax
$51,516
Worth in national money
$52,836
State rank
36
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Pennsylvania. The middle earner gets $63,840. That is 36 of 51 states, and about 1.05% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Pennsylvania, this sits in the middle: 199 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $63,840, tax leaves $51,516, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $52,836 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $66,700, since top earners drag the number up.
- For industrial machinery mechanics, Pennsylvania sits in the lower band at $63,840, ranking 36 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 1.05%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Industrial machinery mechanics ranks 199 of 492 occupations in Pennsylvania 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.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for industrial machinery mechanics — median $63,840 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $51,516 retained, $52,836 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $66,700 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Industrial Machinery Mechanics
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,840 |
| Top tenth earn over | $84,620 |
| This salary | $63,840 |
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 | $51,516 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,475 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,194 |
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 | $61,401 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,653 |
| 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 industrial machinery mechanics in Pennsylvania earn under $63,840 and half over. The published range runs $47,510 at the tenth percentile to $84,620 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $51,516 take-home in Pennsylvania comes from $63,840. 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 199 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of Pennsylvania, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $52,836, the adjusted value of that $63,840 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 199 of 492 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for industrial machinery mechanics in Pennsylvania, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $47,510 to $84,620; 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 $51,516, from $63,840, assumes a single Pennsylvania 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 199 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 36 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Pennsylvania, so $52,836 — the adjusted value of that $63,840 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 199 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $66,700 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $47,510 at the bottom tenth to $84,620 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $52,836 in national terms.
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 Pennsylvania adds its own income tax on top — which is why $51,516 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Pennsylvania is $66,700. 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 ($47,510 to $84,620) 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 $52,836 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 $51,516 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.
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.