Sewing Machine Operators in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,012
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$5,929
15.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,434
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$37,940
Kept after tax
$32,012
Worth in national money
$28,434
State rank
19
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. California pays sewing machine operators around $37,940 at the midpoint, 19 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 492 occupations California publishes, sewing machine operators lands at 477. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- California is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $37,940 the take-home is $32,012; in national-average money that behaves like $28,434. The average comes to $41,060, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For sewing machine operators the California median is $37,940, ranking 19 of 50 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within California, this work ranks 477 of 492 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.
- Take-home for sewing machine operators in California, on $37,940, is $32,012; deflated by the state's price level, $28,434. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $41,060 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Sewing Machine Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,950 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,040 |
| This salary | $37,940 |
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 California | $32,012 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,665 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,180 |
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 | $37,127 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,265 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $37,940 as a midpoint for California, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,950 and the ninetieth is $49,040 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind California's $32,012, worked from $37,940. 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 477 of 492.
- Two cautions on $28,434, the adjusted value of that $37,940 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of California. 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 477 of 492 locally.
- The California median of $37,940 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,950 to $49,040. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The California take-home of $32,012, on $37,940 for work ranking 477 of 492 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 477 of 492 in the state.
- This $28,434 adjusted figure, worked from $37,940, 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 477 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 477 of 492 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 $41,060 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $34,950 at the tenth percentile, $49,040 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $28,434 of national purchasing power.
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 California's own levy, $32,012 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 California is $41,060. 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 ($34,950 to $49,040) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to California rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $28,434 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $32,012 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.