Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,110
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$8,130
17.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,740
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
$47,240
Kept after tax
$39,110
Worth in national money
$34,740
State rank
11
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. California's middle earner gets $47,240, putting the state 11 of 49 — about 6.52% ahead of the national figure.
- Measured against other jobs in California, this one sits low: 395 of 492 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- California is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $47,240 the take-home is $39,110; in national-average money that behaves like $34,740. The average comes to $49,020, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, California sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $47,240, ranking 11 of 49 and running about 6.52% 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.
- Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic occupies position 395 of 492 in California's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Take-home for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in California, on $47,240, is $39,110; deflated by the state's price level, $34,740. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $49,020 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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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 | $36,790 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,470 |
| This salary | $47,240 |
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 | $39,110 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,137 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,564 |
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 | $45,962 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,939 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in California earn less than $47,240. The published range is $36,790 up to $61,470, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In California the take-home figure of $39,110, from $47,240, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 395 of 492 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $34,740, the adjusted value of that $47,240 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of California. 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 395 of 492 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in California the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $36,790 to $61,470. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for California is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $39,110 from $47,240. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 395 of 492 locally.
- This $34,740 adjusted figure, worked from $47,240, 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 395 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 395 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 $49,020 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $36,790 at the tenth percentile, $61,470 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. California costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $34,740 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; California then takes its own share, leaving $39,110.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 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 California is $49,020. 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 ($36,790 to $61,470) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to California rather than a national figure.
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 $34,740 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 $39,110 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.
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.