Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood in North Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,782
after federal, FICA and North Carolina tax
Tax takes
$6,318
16.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,761
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
$38,100
Kept after tax
$31,782
Worth in national money
$33,761
State rank
34
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. North Carolina pays this job a middle wage of $38,100, 34 of 46 states and about 10.92% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within North Carolina this is lower-paid work. Of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 420. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where North Carolina does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $38,100 you keep $31,782, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $33,761 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $41,720, because the best-paid pull it up.
- North Carolina's $38,100 median for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood places it 34 of 46 states, about 10.92% 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 North Carolina reports, sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood ranks 420 of 489, 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 North Carolina income tax, retained pay for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood on $38,100 is $31,782. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $33,761 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 $41,720 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 | $29,120 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,100 |
| Top tenth earn over | $53,880 |
| This salary | $38,100 |
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 | $31,782 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,793 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$14 |
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 | $36,841 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$17 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
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 sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood in North Carolina earn under $38,100 and half over. The published range runs $29,120 at the tenth percentile to $53,880 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $31,782 take-home in North Carolina comes from $38,100. 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 420 of 489.
- Two cautions on $33,761, the adjusted value of that $38,100 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of North Carolina. 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 420 of 489 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood in North Carolina, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $29,120 to $53,880; 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 $31,782, from $38,100, 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 420 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 34 of 46 for it.
- This $33,761 adjusted figure, worked from $38,100, 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 420 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 420 of 489 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 $41,720, 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?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $29,120 at the tenth percentile, $53,880 at the ninetieth.
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 $33,761 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 North Carolina's own levy, $31,782 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 North Carolina is $41,720. 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 ($29,120 to $53,880) 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 $33,761 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 $31,782 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.