Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers Salary and Pay

The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)

Read the ladder vertically: each row is the wage of the Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers worker at that point in the distribution, so $54,690 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

BLS counted 14,900 Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers jobs in May 2024, which is 0.01% of all U.S. employment in the survey. Work is most concentrated in South Carolina, where the location quotient is 9.44, meaning the occupation holds 9.44 times its national share of local jobs. Georgia employs the most people outright, 2,770 of them, and the three largest state employers together account for 49.5% of the national total.

One in ten workers in this field earns $35,590 or less, and one in ten earns $63,650 or more, so the top-to-bottom ratio is 1.8 to 1 and the annual gap is $28,060. The mean ($47,420) versus median ($44,980) comparison shows a right-skewed ladder where senior and specialist roles lift the average in this occupation.

Pay by state

The state spread for Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers runs from the $65,130 median in Ohio down through every other publishing state. Employment concentrates in Georgia (2,770 jobs). The complete table:

The occupation in context

Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers stands number 611 by employment and number 643 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 2% less than its group median, and it supplies 0.2% of the group's 8,743,430 jobs. In 14 of the 24 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $44,980, 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

Dalton, GA is the largest metro employer with 910 jobs, 6.1% 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

Highest-paying metros (500+ jobs)

At the other end, Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC posts the lowest mean pay among metros with at least 500 jobs, $41,740 a year, against $53,640 in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA. Anyone relocating for this work should price the destination metro's table row, not the national median, before signing anything.

What the median pay looks like as a budget

The median annual wage of $44,980 works out to $3,748 a month before taxes, $1,730 per biweekly paycheck, and $865 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($38,990) to the 75th ($54,690) is worth $15,700 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. Run the median through the paycheck calculator for a take-home estimate in your state, compare an offer against your current pay with the salary calculator, and check whether a raise actually beats prices with the raise vs inflation calculator.

To place a real offer: a salary of $49,478 would sit between the median ($44,980) and the 75th percentile ($54,690), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $38,990, is $5,990 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

Compare the ladder above with the closest relatives in the survey: Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters, Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood, Engine and Other Machine Assemblers, Print Binding and Finishing Workers, Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders. The Careers hub carries the whole branch, group by group.