Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood in Alabama
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,732
after federal, FICA and Alabama tax
Tax takes
$6,788
18.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,159
Alabama costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Alabama — 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
$37,520
Kept after tax
$30,732
Worth in national money
$34,159
State rank
36
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Alabama pays this job a middle wage of $37,520, 36 of 46 states and about 12.27% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Alabama this is lower-paid work. Of 482 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 376. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where Alabama does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $37,520 you keep $30,732, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $34,159 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $39,670, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Alabama's $37,520 median for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood places it 36 of 46 states, about 12.27% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Alabama reports, sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood ranks 376 of 482, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- After federal, FICA and Alabama income tax, retained pay for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood on $37,520 is $30,732. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $34,159 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $39,670 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,950 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,520 |
| Top tenth earn over | $51,620 |
| This salary | $37,520 |
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 Alabama | $30,732 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,327 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$891 |
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 | $35,535 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,078 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $37,520 as a midpoint for Alabama, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,950 and the ninetieth is $51,620 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $30,732 take-home in Alabama comes from $37,520. 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 376 of 482.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alabama, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $34,159, the adjusted value of that $37,520 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 376 of 482 in the state.
- The Alabama median of $37,520 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,950 to $51,620. 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 $30,732, from $37,520, assumes a single Alabama 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 376 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 36 of 46 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alabama, so $34,159 — the adjusted value of that $37,520 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 376 of 482 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $39,670, 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 $29,950 and the top tenth $51,620, so most people doing this work in Alabama sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Alabama sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $34,159 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 Alabama adds its own income tax on top — which is why $30,732 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 46 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 Alabama is $39,670. 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 ($29,950 to $51,620) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alabama rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Alabama'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 $34,159 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 $30,732 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Alabama 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.