Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,872
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$7,038
15.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$41,031
Texas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Texas — 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
$46,910
Kept after tax
$39,872
Worth in national money
$41,031
State rank
44
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Texas. The middle earner gets $46,910. That is 44 of 50 states, and about 9.11% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 316 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $46,910, tax leaves $39,872, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $41,031 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $51,330, since top earners drag the number up.
- For separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders, Texas sits in the lower band at $46,910, ranking 44 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 9.11%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders ranks 316 of 493 occupations in Texas by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders — median $46,910 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $39,872 retained, $41,031 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $51,330 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,720 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,910 |
| Top tenth earn over | $69,670 |
| This salary | $46,910 |
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 Texas | $39,872 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $39,872 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,490 |
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 | $46,910 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,205 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $46,910 as a midpoint for Texas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,720 and the ninetieth is $69,670 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $39,872 take-home in Texas comes from $46,910. 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 316 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $41,031 uses one figure for the whole of Texas. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 316.
- The Texas median of $46,910 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,720 to $69,670. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $39,872, from $46,910, assumes a single Texas 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 316 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 44 of 50 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $41,031, worked from $46,910, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Texas address, on work sitting at 316 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $51,330 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $35,720, the highest tenth $69,670, 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 Texas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $41,031 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $39,872 survives, because Texas levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 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 Texas is $51,330. 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 ($35,720) and the ninetieth ($69,670) 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?
Texas'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 $41,031 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Texas levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $39,872 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.