Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,873
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$5,717
16.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,276
West Virginia costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in West Virginia — 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
$35,590
Kept after tax
$29,873
Worth in national money
$33,276
State rank
45
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. West Virginia pays this job a middle wage of $35,590, 45 of 46 states and about 16.79% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within West Virginia this is lower-paid work. Of 473 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 392. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Here is where West Virginia does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $35,590 you keep $29,873, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $33,276 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $37,930, because the best-paid pull it up.
- West Virginia's $35,590 median for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood places it 45 of 46 states, about 16.79% 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 West Virginia reports, sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood ranks 392 of 473, 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 West Virginia income tax, retained pay for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood on $35,590 is $29,873. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $33,276 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 $37,930 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 | $27,450 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,280 |
| This salary | $35,590 |
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 West Virginia | $29,873 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,777 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,605 |
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 | $34,465 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,941 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
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 West Virginia earn under $35,590 and half over. The published range runs $27,450 at the tenth percentile to $58,280 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind West Virginia's $29,873, worked from $35,590. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 392 of 473.
- Two cautions on $33,276, the adjusted value of that $35,590 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of West Virginia. 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 392 of 473 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood in West Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $27,450 to $58,280; 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.
- The West Virginia take-home of $29,873, on $35,590 for work ranking 392 of 473 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 392 of 473 in the state.
- This $33,276 adjusted figure, worked from $35,590, 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 392 of 473 in the state. The occupation ranks 392 of 473 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 $37,930, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $27,450, the highest tenth $58,280, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in West Virginia sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $33,276 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; West Virginia then takes its own share, leaving $29,873.
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 West Virginia is $37,930. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($27,450) and the ninetieth ($58,280) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
West Virginia'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 $33,276 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 $29,873 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and West Virginia 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.