Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,576
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$7,994
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,945
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$42,570
Kept after tax
$34,576
Worth in national money
$31,945
State rank
35
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Massachusetts pays this job a middle wage of $42,570, 35 of 49 states and about 4.01% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Massachusetts this is lower-paid work. Of 485 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 432. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $42,570, tax leaves $34,576 — and because Massachusetts is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $31,945 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $44,750, since top earners drag the number up.
- Massachusetts's $42,570 median for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic places it 35 of 49 states, about 4.01% 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.
- Against every occupation Massachusetts reports, molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic ranks 432 of 485, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- After tax, $34,576 remains from the Massachusetts median of $42,570 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $31,945 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $44,750 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 | $35,920 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $42,570 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,670 |
| This salary | $42,570 |
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 Massachusetts | $34,576 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,385 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,498 |
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 | $40,319 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,649 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Massachusetts earn less than $42,570. The published range is $35,920 up to $58,670, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $34,576 take-home in Massachusetts comes from $42,570. 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 432 of 485.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $31,945 uses one figure for the whole of Massachusetts. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 485 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 432.
- Reported values are medians; for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Massachusetts the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $35,920 to $58,670. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $34,576, from $42,570, assumes a single Massachusetts 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 432 of 485 locally, and the state ranks 35 of 49 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $31,945, worked from $42,570, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Massachusetts address, on work sitting at 432 of 485 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 $44,750 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 $35,920 at the bottom tenth to $58,670 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. Massachusetts costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $31,945 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 Massachusetts's own levy, $34,576 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.
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 Massachusetts is $44,750. 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 ($35,920 to $58,670) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Massachusetts rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $31,945 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 $34,576 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.