Sheet Metal Workers in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$62,802
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$19,298
23.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$58,022
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$82,100
Kept after tax
$62,802
Worth in national money
$58,022
State rank
6
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Massachusetts pays sheet metal workers a middle wage of $82,100, ranking 6 of 50 states and sitting about 32.85% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Sheet metal workers ranks 171 among 485 occupations Massachusetts publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $82,100, tax leaves $62,802 — and because Massachusetts is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $58,022 would nationally. Here the average runs under the middle, at $78,900.
- Massachusetts's median for sheet metal workers is $82,100, about 32.85% above the national figure and 6 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 171 of 485 in Massachusetts places sheet metal workers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After tax, $62,802 remains from the Massachusetts median of $82,100 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $58,022 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $78,900 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Sheet Metal Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,440 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $82,100 |
| Top tenth earn over | $121,050 |
| This salary | $82,100 |
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 Massachusetts | $62,802 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $66,587 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,501 |
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 | $76,720 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,505 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
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 sheet metal workers in Massachusetts earn under $82,100 and half over. The published range runs $46,440 at the tenth percentile to $121,050 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $62,802 take-home in Massachusetts comes from $82,100. 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 171 of 485.
- Two cautions on $58,022, the adjusted value of that $82,100 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Massachusetts. 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 171 of 485 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for sheet metal workers in Massachusetts, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $46,440 to $121,050; 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.
- Retained pay of $62,802, from $82,100, assumes a single Massachusetts 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 171 of 485 locally, and the state ranks 6 of 50 for it.
- This $58,022 adjusted figure, worked from $82,100, 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 171 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 171 of 485 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 $78,900 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $46,440 and the top tenth $121,050 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Massachusetts costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $58,022 rather than its face figure.
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; Massachusetts then takes its own share, leaving $62,802.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 Massachusetts is $78,900. 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 ($46,440) and the ninetieth ($121,050) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $58,022 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 $62,802 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.