Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,914
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$8,026
15.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,450
Washington costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Washington — 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
$51,940
Kept after tax
$43,914
Worth in national money
$40,450
State rank
2
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Washington pays this job a middle wage of $51,940, ranking 2 of 46 states and sitting about 21.44% above the national middle.
- Within Washington this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 372. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $51,940 the take-home is $43,914; in national-average money that behaves like $40,450. The average comes to $53,150, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Washington's median for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood is $51,940, about 21.44% above the national figure and 2 of 46 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Against every occupation Washington reports, sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood ranks 372 of 493, 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.
- Take-home for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood in Washington, on $51,940, is $43,914; deflated by the state's price level, $40,450. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $53,150 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,730 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,180 |
| This salary | $51,940 |
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 Washington | $43,914 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,914 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,740 |
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 | $51,940 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,733 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
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 Washington earn under $51,940 and half over. The published range runs $39,730 at the tenth percentile to $63,180 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $43,914, from $51,940, 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 372 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $40,450, the adjusted value of that $51,940 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Washington. 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 372 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,730 to $63,180; 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.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $43,914 from $51,940. 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 372 of 493 locally.
- This $40,450 adjusted figure, worked from $51,940, 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 372 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 372 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $39,730 at the tenth percentile, $63,180 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Washington run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $40,450 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $43,914 of this wage reaches your account, because Washington takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($39,730 to $63,180) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Washington rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Washington's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $40,450 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Washington levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $43,914 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.