Sewing Machine Operators in Mississippi

Machined metal parts and a CNC machine in a clean manufacturing workshop.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$30,980

after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax

Tax takes

$6,620

17.6% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$35,490

Mississippi costs less than average

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

$37,600

Kept after tax

$30,980

Worth in national money

$35,490

State rank

22

of 50 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Neither high nor low. Mississippi is 22 of 50 states for sewing machine operators, with a middle wage of $37,600. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
  • Within Mississippi this is lower-paid work. Of 486 occupations the state publishes figures for, sewing machine operators ranks 365. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
  • Here is where Mississippi does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $37,600 you keep $30,980, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $35,490 would elsewhere. The average is lower, $36,780, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
  • Mississippi ranks 22 of 50 for sewing machine operators at $37,600. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
  • Against every occupation Mississippi reports, sewing machine operators ranks 365 of 486, 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 Mississippi income tax, retained pay for sewing machine operators on $37,600 is $30,980. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $35,490 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 $36,780 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.

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Pay band: Sewing Machine Operators

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$26,840
Half earn under$37,600
Top tenth earn over$44,220
This salary$37,600

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

Compare with
+$1,412take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Mississippi$30,980
Take-home in Texas$32,392
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$2,156

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

Moving to
$0$40,208
$40,208in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$35,843
Raise you would need+$2,608
Prices in Texas97 vs 87

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $37,600 as a midpoint for Mississippi, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $26,840 and the ninetieth is $44,220 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • That $30,980 take-home in Mississippi comes from $37,600. 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 365 of 486.
  • Two cautions on $35,490, the adjusted value of that $37,600 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Mississippi. 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 365 of 486 locally.
  • The Mississippi median of $37,600 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $26,840 to $44,220. 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 $30,980, from $37,600, assumes a single Mississippi 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 365 of 486 locally, and the state ranks 22 of 50 for it.
  • This $35,490 adjusted figure, worked from $37,600, 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 365 of 486 in the state. The occupation ranks 365 of 486 locally.

Questions people ask

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $26,840 at the tenth percentile, $44,220 at the ninetieth.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $35,490.

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 Mississippi's own levy, $30,980 remains.

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.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($26,840 to $44,220) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Mississippi rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Mississippi'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 $35,490 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 $30,980 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Mississippi 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.