Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,118
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$7,813
16.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,690
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$46,930
Kept after tax
$39,118
Worth in national money
$38,690
State rank
13
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Arizona is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $46,930, which ranks 13 of 49 states with published figures. That is about 5.82% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Arizona, this sits in the middle: 351 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $46,930, tax leaves $39,118, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $38,690 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $48,160, since top earners drag the number up.
- Arizona ranks 13 of 49 states publishing a median for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, at $46,930 — about 5.82% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic ranks 351 of 491 occupations in Arizona 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 Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic — median $46,930 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $39,118 retained, $38,690 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $48,160 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,340 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,930 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,240 |
| This salary | $46,930 |
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 Arizona | $39,118 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,888 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,358 |
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 | $45,971 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,852 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Arizona earn under $46,930 and half over. The published range runs $33,340 at the tenth percentile to $61,240 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $39,118 take-home in Arizona comes from $46,930. 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 351 of 491.
- Two cautions on $38,690, the adjusted value of that $46,930 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arizona. 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 351 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Arizona, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $33,340 to $61,240; 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 $39,118, from $46,930, assumes a single Arizona 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 351 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 13 of 49 for it.
- This $38,690 adjusted figure, worked from $46,930, 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 351 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 351 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $33,340 at the bottom tenth to $61,240 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Arizona costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $38,690 rather than its face figure.
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 Arizona's own levy, $39,118 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($33,340 to $61,240) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arizona rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $38,690 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 $39,118 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.