Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in North Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,571
after federal, FICA and North Dakota tax
Tax takes
$7,209
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,806
North Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Dakota — 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
$47,780
Kept after tax
$40,571
Worth in national money
$45,806
State rank
9
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. North Dakota's middle earner gets $47,780, putting the state 9 of 49 — about 7.73% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in North Dakota, this sits in the middle: 339 of 460 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 $47,780 you keep $40,571 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $45,806 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $50,280, since top earners drag the number up.
- For molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, North Dakota sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $47,780, ranking 9 of 49 and running about 7.73% 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 ranks 339 of 460 occupations in North Dakota 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 North Dakota is $40,571 after the full tax stack, from $47,780. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $45,806 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $50,280 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 | $40,590 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,260 |
| This salary | $47,780 |
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 North Dakota | $40,571 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,571 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,055 |
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
| To match take-home only | $47,780 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,904 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
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 North Dakota earn under $47,780 and half over. The published range runs $40,590 at the tenth percentile to $62,260 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind North Dakota's $40,571, worked from $47,780. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 339 of 460.
- One number stands for prices across all of North Dakota, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $45,806, the adjusted value of that $47,780 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 339 of 460 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in North Dakota, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $40,590 to $62,260; 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.
- The North Dakota take-home of $40,571, on $47,780 for work ranking 339 of 460 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 339 of 460 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for North Dakota, so $45,806 — the adjusted value of that $47,780 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 339 of 460 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $50,280, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $40,590 and the top tenth $62,260, so most people doing this work in North Dakota sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in North Dakota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $45,806 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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; North Dakota then takes its own share, leaving $40,571.
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 North Dakota is $50,280. 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 ($40,590 to $62,260) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to North Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
North Dakota'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 $45,806 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 $40,571 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Dakota 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.