Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,236
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$5,904
14.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,260
Texas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Texas — 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
$41,140
Kept after tax
$35,236
Worth in national money
$36,260
State rank
40
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $41,140, ranking 40 of 49 states — about 7.24% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Measured against other jobs in Texas, this one sits low: 379 of 493 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $41,140 the take-home is $35,236, which is worth about $36,260 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $43,860, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Texas ranks 40 of 49 for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, with a median of $41,140 — about 7.24% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic occupies position 379 of 493 in Texas'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.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic on its $41,140 median: $35,236 retained after tax becomes $36,260 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $43,860 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,780 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $41,140 |
| Top tenth earn over | $59,540 |
| This salary | $41,140 |
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 Texas | $35,236 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $35,236 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,200 |
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 | $41,140 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,833 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
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 Texas earn under $41,140 and half over. The published range runs $29,780 at the tenth percentile to $59,540 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $35,236 take-home in Texas comes from $41,140. 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 379 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $36,260 uses one figure for the whole of Texas. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 379.
- Figures are distribution medians for molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $29,780 to $59,540; 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 $35,236, from $41,140, assumes a single Texas 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 379 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 40 of 49 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $36,260, worked from $41,140, 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 Texas address, on work sitting at 379 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $43,860, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $29,780, the highest tenth $59,540, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Texas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $36,260 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $35,236 survives, because Texas levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 Texas is $43,860. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($29,780) and the ninetieth ($59,540) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Texas'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 $36,260 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Texas levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $35,236 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.