Machinists in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,070
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$7,820
15.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,891
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$50,890
Kept after tax
$43,070
Worth in national money
$48,891
State rank
49
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. South Dakota pays machinists a middle wage of $50,890, 49 of 51 states and about 13.38% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in South Dakota, this sits in the middle: 244 of 457 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $50,890 you keep $43,070 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $48,891 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $51,860, since top earners drag the number up.
- South Dakota's $50,890 median for machinists places it 49 of 51 states, about 13.38% 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.
- Machinists ranks 244 of 457 occupations in South Dakota 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.
- Retained pay in South Dakota is $43,070 after the full tax stack, from $50,890. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $48,891 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $51,860 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Machinists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,280 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $50,890 |
| Top tenth earn over | $60,840 |
| This salary | $50,890 |
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 Dakota | $43,070 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,070 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,568 |
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 | $50,890 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,525 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $50,890 as a midpoint for South Dakota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $39,280 and the ninetieth is $60,840 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $43,070 take-home in South Dakota comes from $50,890. 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 244 of 457.
- Two cautions on $48,891, the adjusted value of that $50,890 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Dakota. 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 244 of 457 locally.
- The South Dakota median of $50,890 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $39,280 to $60,840. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $43,070, from $50,890, assumes a single South Dakota 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 244 of 457 locally, and the state ranks 49 of 51 for it.
- This $48,891 adjusted figure, worked from $50,890, 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 244 of 457 in the state. The occupation ranks 244 of 457 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $39,280 and the top tenth $60,840, so most people doing this work in South Dakota sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in South Dakota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $48,891 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $43,070 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($39,280 to $60,840) 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 Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Dakota'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 $48,891 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $43,070 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.