Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders in North Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,111
after federal, FICA and North Carolina tax
Tax takes
$7,039
17.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,235
North Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Carolina — 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
$41,150
Kept after tax
$34,111
Worth in national money
$36,235
State rank
30
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. North Carolina pays this job around $41,150 at the midpoint, 30 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 489 occupations North Carolina publishes, this job lands at 389. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $41,150 you keep $34,111 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $36,235 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $43,850, since top earners drag the number up.
- For packaging and filling machine operators and tenders the North Carolina median is $41,150, ranking 30 of 50 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within North Carolina, this work ranks 389 of 489 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.
- Retained pay in North Carolina is $34,111 after the full tax stack, from $41,150. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $36,235 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $43,850 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,140 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $41,150 |
| Top tenth earn over | $59,220 |
| This salary | $41,150 |
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 Carolina | $34,111 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $35,244 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$34 |
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 | $39,740 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$41 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $41,150 as a midpoint for North Carolina, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $31,140 and the ninetieth is $59,220 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $34,111 take-home in North Carolina comes from $41,150. 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 389 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of North Carolina, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $36,235, the adjusted value of that $41,150 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 389 of 489 in the state.
- The North Carolina median of $41,150 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $31,140 to $59,220. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $34,111, from $41,150, assumes a single North Carolina 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 389 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 30 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for North Carolina, so $36,235 — the adjusted value of that $41,150 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 389 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $43,850, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $31,140 and the top tenth $59,220, so most people doing this work in North Carolina sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in North Carolina sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $36,235 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 North Carolina adds its own income tax on top — which is why $34,111 of this wage survives to your account.
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 50 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 Carolina is $43,850. 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 ($31,140 to $59,220) 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 Carolina rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
North Carolina'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 $36,235 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 $34,111 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Carolina 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.