Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic Salary and Pay
How much do Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic make?
Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic pay a median of $46,630 a year in the BLS May 2024 survey, with a mean of $50,330 across 5,310 counted jobs. Half of all workers in the occupation earn between $41,100 and $56,820.
The complete pay picture for Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic: 5,310 jobs nationally, a median of $46,630, and the state and metro tables that show where that median is beaten and where it is not.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Every level in the picker is a published BLS figure for Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic, not a national average. Annual-to-hourly conversions divide by 2,080 hours, the survey's full-time year; top-coded levels use $239,200, the floor BLS prints, so the true figure is higher.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $35,360 | $17.00 |
| 25th percentile | $41,100 | $19.76 |
| Median (50th) | $46,630 | $22.42 |
| 75th percentile | $56,820 | $27.32 |
| 90th percentile | $65,200 | $31.34 |
Read the ladder vertically: each row is the wage of the Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic worker at that point in the distribution, so $56,820 at the 75th percentile means three quarters of the occupation earns less. Figures BLS cannot publish appear as n/p, and its top code prints as $239,200+.
Employment and concentration
With 5,310 jobs nationally, Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic make up 0.00% of U.S. employment as BLS measured it in May 2024. The map is uneven: Tennessee alone holds 750 of those jobs, the top three states hold 35.0%, and the deepest concentration sits in Tennessee (location quotient 6.68, where 1.00 is the national average). A quotient above 2 usually signals a local industry cluster rather than evenly spread demand.
The spread matters as much as the center. Earners at the 90th percentile make $65,200, which is 1.8 times the $35,360 at the 10th, a difference of $29,840 annually. Because the mean wage ($50,330) sits above the median ($46,630), a typical offer should be judged against the median and the 25th to 75th percentile band, not the mean.
Pay by state
Sorted by employment, the table below puts Tennessee first at 750 jobs; sorted by median pay instead, Washington would lead at $99,720. Both orderings are printed in one table:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tennessee | 750 | 0.2 | 6.68 | $44,610 | $46,590 |
| California | 690 | 0.0 | 1.10 | $54,330 | $48,220 |
| Ohio | 420 | 0.1 | 2.19 | $51,160 | $50,090 |
| Indiana | 330 | 0.1 | 3.02 | $41,960 | $37,910 |
| Illinois | 250 | 0.0 | 1.20 | $56,980 | $56,200 |
| Texas | 220 | 0.0 | 0.46 | $42,880 | $43,600 |
| Michigan | 170 | 0.0 | 1.13 | $46,050 | $43,870 |
| Florida | 160 | 0.0 | 0.46 | $58,860 | $62,400 |
| Pennsylvania | 160 | 0.0 | 0.77 | $54,030 | $58,200 |
| Iowa | 150 | 0.1 | 2.77 | $48,290 | $47,110 |
| Minnesota | 120 | 0.0 | 1.18 | $45,370 | $44,830 |
| Alabama | 110 | 0.1 | 1.54 | $41,840 | $40,030 |
| North Carolina | 90 | 0.0 | 0.53 | $50,450 | $47,640 |
| Maine | 80 | 0.1 | 3.54 | $46,540 | $47,090 |
| Massachusetts | 80 | 0.0 | 0.61 | $68,210 | $74,680 |
| Wisconsin | 80 | 0.0 | 0.81 | $39,500 | $37,870 |
| Mississippi | 60 | 0.1 | 1.49 | $48,350 | $48,420 |
| Oregon | 60 | 0.0 | 0.87 | n/p | n/p |
| South Carolina | 60 | 0.0 | 0.71 | $52,160 | $50,400 |
| Georgia | 50 | 0.0 | 0.30 | $57,110 | $56,740 |
| New Hampshire | 50 | 0.1 | 2.29 | $55,040 | $57,900 |
| Colorado | 40 | 0.0 | 0.41 | $48,990 | $49,920 |
| Nebraska | 40 | 0.0 | 1.02 | $41,900 | $37,160 |
| New York | 40 | 0.0 | 0.13 | $51,660 | $57,180 |
| Virginia | 40 | 0.0 | 0.31 | $48,170 | $49,180 |
| Nevada | 30 | 0.0 | 0.66 | $37,960 | $35,130 |
| Arizona | n/p | n/p | n/p | $45,710 | $46,630 |
| Missouri | n/p | n/p | n/p | $81,160 | $99,630 |
| New Jersey | n/p | n/p | n/p | $53,580 | $53,700 |
| Oklahoma | n/p | n/p | n/p | $49,670 | $49,470 |
| Washington | n/p | n/p | n/p | $97,760 | $99,720 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic stands number 756 by employment and number 607 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Production Occupations, the group median wage is $46,020 across 105 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 1% more than its group median, and it supplies 0.1% of the group's 8,743,430 jobs. In 20 of the 30 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $46,630, which is the single best quick test of whether this occupation's pay is set nationally or locally: a high count means local markets regularly outbid the national figure.
Metropolitan areas: where the jobs and the pay sit
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA is the largest metro employer with 440 jobs, 8.3% of the national total. Below, the biggest employers come first; the pay table after it only counts metros with 500 or more jobs in the occupation, so its leader is a real market and not a statistical artifact.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 440 | $56,100 | $49,420 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 160 | $54,520 | $56,410 |
| Cleveland, OH | 140 | $53,180 | $50,090 |
| Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN | 120 | $49,790 | $50,660 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 110 | $53,170 | $45,600 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 90 | $45,530 | $44,830 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 70 | $49,020 | $46,090 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 60 | $72,440 | $77,720 |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 60 | n/p | n/p |
| Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | 60 | n/p | n/p |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
The median Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic paycheck, gross, is $1,793 every two weeks on an annual $46,630, which is $3,886 a month and $897 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($41,100) to the 75th ($56,820) is worth $15,720 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. Gross is a starting point, not a budget: the paycheck calculator nets it down by state, an offer comparison lives in the salary calculator, and the raise vs inflation calculator separates a real raise from a nominal one.
To place a real offer: a salary of $51,293 would sit between the median ($46,630) and the 75th percentile ($56,820), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $41,100, is $5,530 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Production Occupations
The occupations BLS groups with this one, by size: Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic, Foundry Mold and Coremakers, Coil Winders, Tapers, and Finishers, Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders, Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand, Medical Appliance Technicians. Every one of the 826 published occupations is indexed on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic make?
The median annual wage is $46,630 and the mean is $50,330 in the BLS OEWS May 2024 estimates. The middle half of workers earn between $41,100 and $56,820 a year.
Which state pays Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic the most?
By median annual wage, Washington leads the state table at $99,720, based on n/p jobs in that state. By mean wage and by headcount the leaders can differ, so the state table on this page shows all three measures side by side.
How many Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic are there in the United States?
BLS counted 5,310 wage and salary workers in this occupation in May 2024, 0.00% of all U.S. employment in the survey. The largest state employer is Tennessee with 750 jobs.
What do the OEWS percentiles mean for Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic?
They mark points in this occupation's pay distribution. One worker in ten earns $35,360 or less and one in ten earns $65,200 or more; the median, $46,630, is the wage of the worker exactly in the middle of the 5,310 counted jobs.