Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing in Missouri

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

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$32,348

after federal, FICA and Missouri tax

Tax takes

$6,292

16.3% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$35,253

Missouri 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

$38,640

Kept after tax

$32,348

Worth in national money

$35,253

State rank

39

of 47 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • The nominal figure here is modest. Missouri pays this job a middle wage of $38,640, 39 of 47 states and about 10.93% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
  • Within Missouri this is lower-paid work. Of 488 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 407. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
  • Missouri is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $38,640 the take-home is $32,348; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $35,253 would nationally. The average comes to $41,340, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
  • Missouri's $38,640 median for woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing places it 39 of 47 states, about 10.93% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
  • Against every occupation Missouri reports, woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing ranks 407 of 488, 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.
  • Post-tax income for woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing in Missouri, on $38,640, is $32,348 — equivalent to $35,253 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $41,340 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$34,600
Half earn under$38,640
Top tenth earn over$49,260
This salary$38,640

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
+$879take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Missouri$32,348
Take-home in Texas$33,227
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,059

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$39,921
$39,921in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$37,546
Raise you would need+$1,281
Prices in Texas97 vs 92

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

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $38,640 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,600 and the ninetieth is $49,260 — 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 Missouri's $32,348, worked from $38,640. 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 407 of 488.
  • Two cautions on $35,253, the adjusted value of that $38,640 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Missouri. 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 407 of 488 locally.
  • The Missouri median of $38,640 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,600 to $49,260. 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 Missouri take-home of $32,348, on $38,640 for work ranking 407 of 488 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 407 of 488 in the state.
  • This $35,253 adjusted figure, worked from $38,640, 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 407 of 488 in the state. The occupation ranks 407 of 488 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 $41,340 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 — $34,600 at the tenth percentile, $49,260 at the ninetieth.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

More than the figure suggests. Prices in Missouri sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $35,253 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.

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; Missouri then takes its own share, leaving $32,348.

Why is this job missing from some states?

The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 47 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 Missouri is $41,340. 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 ($34,600 to $49,260) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Missouri rather than a national figure.

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

Missouri'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 $35,253 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 $32,348 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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.