Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing in Colorado
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,205
after federal, FICA and Colorado tax
Tax takes
$8,295
17.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,684
Colorado costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Colorado — 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
$46,500
Kept after tax
$38,205
Worth in national money
$37,684
State rank
10
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Colorado pays this job a middle wage of $46,500, ranking 10 of 47 states and sitting about 7.19% above the national middle.
- Against 491 occupations Colorado publishes, this job lands at 403. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $46,500, tax leaves $38,205, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $37,684 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $46,630, since top earners drag the number up.
- Colorado's median for woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing is $46,500, about 7.19% above the national figure and 10 of 47 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Colorado, this work ranks 403 of 491 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.
- Because Colorado sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing — median $46,500 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $38,205 retained, $37,684 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $46,630 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,100 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,500 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,620 |
| This salary | $46,500 |
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 Colorado | $38,205 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,543 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,008 |
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 | $44,835 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,638 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $46,500 as a midpoint for Colorado, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,100 and the ninetieth is $62,620 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $38,205 take-home in Colorado comes from $46,500. 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 403 of 491.
- Two cautions on $37,684, the adjusted value of that $46,500 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Colorado. 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 403 of 491 locally.
- The Colorado median of $46,500 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,100 to $62,620. 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 $38,205, from $46,500, assumes a single Colorado 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 403 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 10 of 47 for it.
- This $37,684 adjusted figure, worked from $46,500, 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 403 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 403 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $34,100 and the top tenth $62,620, so most people doing this work in Colorado sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $37,684 of national purchasing power.
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; Colorado then takes its own share, leaving $38,205.
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 47 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($34,100 to $62,620) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Colorado rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Colorado's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $37,684 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 $38,205 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Colorado 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.