Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,496
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$8,704
18.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,958
Colorado costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Colorado — 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
$48,200
Kept after tax
$39,496
Worth in national money
$38,958
State rank
8
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Colorado is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $48,200, which ranks 8 of 49 states with published figures. That is about 8.68% above the national middle.
- Against 491 occupations Colorado publishes, this job lands at 374. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $48,200, tax leaves $39,496, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $38,958 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $50,170, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado ranks 8 of 49 states publishing a median for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, at $48,200 — about 8.68% 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.
- Within Colorado, this work ranks 374 of 491 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Colorado 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 $48,200 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $39,496 retained, $38,958 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $50,170 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 | $41,670 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,200 |
| Top tenth earn over | $59,220 |
| This salary | $48,200 |
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 Colorado | $39,496 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,909 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,140 |
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 | $46,442 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,798 |
| 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 Colorado earn under $48,200 and half over. The published range runs $41,670 at the tenth percentile to $59,220 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $39,496 take-home in Colorado comes from $48,200. 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 374 of 491.
- Two cautions on $38,958, the adjusted value of that $48,200 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Colorado. 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 374 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Colorado, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $41,670 to $59,220; 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 $39,496, from $48,200, assumes a single Colorado 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 374 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 8 of 49 for it.
- This $38,958 adjusted figure, worked from $48,200, 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 374 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 374 of 491 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 $50,170 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 $41,670 at the bottom tenth to $59,220 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. Colorado costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $38,958 rather than its face figure.
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 Colorado adds its own income tax on top — which is why $39,496 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Colorado is $50,170. 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 ($41,670 to $59,220) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Colorado rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Colorado's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $38,958 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 $39,496 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Colorado 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.