Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,128
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$6,962
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,733
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$43,090
Kept after tax
$36,128
Worth in national money
$35,733
State rank
37
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Arizona. The middle earner gets $43,090. That is 37 of 45 states, and about 8.67% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 491 occupations Arizona publishes, this job lands at 409. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $43,090, tax leaves $36,128, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $35,733 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $44,620, since top earners drag the number up.
- For multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, Arizona sits in the lower band at $43,090, ranking 37 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 8.67%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Arizona, this work ranks 409 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 Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic — median $43,090 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $36,128 retained, $35,733 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $44,620 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,090 |
| Top tenth earn over | $60,000 |
| This salary | $43,090 |
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 Arizona | $36,128 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,803 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,140 |
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 | $42,250 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,588 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $43,090 as a midpoint for Arizona, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $33,990 and the ninetieth is $60,000 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Arizona the take-home figure of $36,128, from $43,090, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 409 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $35,733, the adjusted value of that $43,090 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arizona. 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 409 of 491 locally.
- The Arizona median of $43,090 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $33,990 to $60,000. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Arizona is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $36,128 from $43,090. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 409 of 491 locally.
- This $35,733 adjusted figure, worked from $43,090, 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 409 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 409 of 491 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 $44,620, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $33,990 at the bottom tenth to $60,000 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $35,733 of national purchasing power.
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 Arizona adds its own income tax on top — which is why $36,128 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 Arizona is $44,620. 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 ($33,990 to $60,000) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arizona rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $35,733 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 $36,128 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.