Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,887
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$6,143
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,750
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — 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
$38,030
Kept after tax
$31,887
Worth in national money
$34,750
State rank
35
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Missouri. The middle earner gets $38,030. That is 35 of 46 states, and about 11.08% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 488 occupations Missouri publishes, this job lands at 416. 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 $38,030 you keep $31,887 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $34,750 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $39,660, since top earners drag the number up.
- For sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood, Missouri sits in the lower band at $38,030, ranking 35 of 46 and trailing the national median by about 11.08%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Missouri, this work ranks 416 of 488 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 Missouri is $31,887 after the full tax stack, from $38,030. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $34,750 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $39,660 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,630 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,030 |
| Top tenth earn over | $48,670 |
| This salary | $38,030 |
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 Missouri | $31,887 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,737 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,061 |
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 | $36,972 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,283 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $38,030 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $30,630 and the ninetieth is $48,670 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Missouri the take-home figure of $31,887, from $38,030, 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 416 of 488 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Missouri, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $34,750, the adjusted value of that $38,030 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 416 of 488 in the state.
- The Missouri median of $38,030 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $30,630 to $48,670. 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 Missouri is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $31,887 from $38,030. 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 416 of 488 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Missouri, so $34,750 — the adjusted value of that $38,030 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 416 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $39,660, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $30,630 at the tenth percentile, $48,670 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $34,750.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Missouri's own levy, $31,887 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 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 Missouri is $39,660. 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 ($30,630 to $48,670) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Missouri rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri'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 $34,750 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 $31,887 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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.