Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Nebraska

Machined metal parts and a CNC machine in a clean manufacturing workshop.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$39,647

after federal, FICA and Nebraska tax

Tax takes

$8,853

18.3% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$43,868

Nebraska costs less than average

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

$48,500

Kept after tax

$39,647

Worth in national money

$43,868

State rank

6

of 49 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • This is a good state for the work. Nebraska pays this job a middle wage of $48,500, ranking 6 of 49 states and sitting about 9.36% above the national middle.
  • Against other work in Nebraska, this sits in the middle: 319 of 488 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 $48,500 you keep $39,647 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $43,868 at national prices. Here the average runs under the middle, at $47,740.
  • Nebraska's median for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic is $48,500, about 9.36% above the national figure and 6 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
  • Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic ranks 319 of 488 occupations in Nebraska 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 Nebraska is $39,647 after the full tax stack, from $48,500. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $43,868 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $47,740 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.

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Pay band: Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$31,710
Half earn under$48,500
Top tenth earn over$61,780
This salary$48,500

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

Compare with
+$1,503take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Nebraska$39,647
Take-home in Texas$41,150
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,522

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

Moving to
$0$50,341
$50,341in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$46,629
Raise you would need+$1,841
Prices in Texas97 vs 90

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Half the people doing this work in Nebraska earn less than $48,500. The published range is $31,710 up to $61,780, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • That $39,647 take-home in Nebraska comes from $48,500. 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 319 of 488.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $43,868 uses one figure for the whole of Nebraska. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 319.
  • Reported values are medians; for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Nebraska the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $31,710 to $61,780. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • Retained pay of $39,647, from $48,500, assumes a single Nebraska 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 319 of 488 locally, and the state ranks 6 of 49 for it.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $43,868, worked from $48,500, 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 Nebraska address, on work sitting at 319 of 488 locally.

Questions people ask

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $31,710 at the tenth percentile, $61,780 at the ninetieth.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

More than the figure suggests. Prices in Nebraska sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $43,868 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.

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 Nebraska's own levy, $39,647 remains.

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.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($31,710 to $61,780) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Nebraska rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Nebraska'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 $43,868 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.

What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?

Take-home of $39,647 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Nebraska 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.