Foundry Mold and Coremakers Salary and Pay
How much do Foundry Mold and Coremakers make?
In May 2024 the middle Foundry Mold and Coremakers worker earned $45,700 a year, the average was $46,910, and the survey counted 12,720 jobs. The 25th percentile is $39,370 and the 75th is $51,360.
One page for the whole Foundry Mold and Coremakers pay distribution: national ladder first, then all 32 state rows and the metro rankings, every figure from BLS OEWS May 2024.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Conversions use 12 months, 26 biweekly periods, 52 weeks, and 2,080 hours. No level in this occupation's ladder reaches the BLS top code, so every figure the converter shows is a published estimate rather than a floor.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $36,220 | $17.41 |
| 25th percentile | $39,370 | $18.93 |
| Median (50th) | $45,700 | $21.97 |
| 75th percentile | $51,360 | $24.69 |
| 90th percentile | $61,390 | $29.52 |
A percentile marks a point in this occupation's pay distribution: the worker one quarter of the way up the Foundry Mold and Coremakers ladder earns the 25th percentile wage, $39,370. BLS top-codes very high wages ($239,200+ a year, $115.00+ an hour) and marks estimates it cannot publish as n/p.
Employment and concentration
May 2024 employment stood at 12,720, or 0.01% of the U.S. total. Michigan leads the state table with 1,700 jobs; the top three states sum to 31.4% of the occupation. The concentration measure tells the more interesting story: Iowa posts a location quotient of 4.75, so a worker there is far more likely to meet a colleague in this field than the national pattern suggests.
Read the ladder as a career path in numbers: $39,370 at the 25th percentile, $45,700 at the middle, $51,360 at the 75th. The full 10-to-90 range runs $25,170, a ratio of 1.7 to 1. Where a specific job offer lands on that range says more about the role's level than the occupation's headline median does.
Pay by state
The state spread for Foundry Mold and Coremakers runs from the $65,020 median in Oregon down through every other publishing state. Employment concentrates in Michigan (1,700 jobs). The complete table:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 1,700 | 0.4 | 4.68 | $46,380 | $44,520 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,200 | 0.2 | 2.43 | $44,290 | $42,920 |
| Ohio | 1,100 | 0.2 | 2.41 | $47,930 | $46,890 |
| Wisconsin | 910 | 0.3 | 3.77 | $44,830 | $44,420 |
| Indiana | 660 | 0.2 | 2.50 | $47,270 | $47,820 |
| Alabama | 650 | 0.3 | 3.75 | $45,190 | $45,720 |
| California | 610 | 0.0 | 0.41 | $45,820 | $42,790 |
| Iowa | 610 | 0.4 | 4.75 | $45,920 | $45,700 |
| Missouri | 610 | 0.2 | 2.55 | $57,550 | $59,300 |
| Tennessee | 520 | 0.2 | 1.93 | $39,010 | $43,150 |
| Illinois | 390 | 0.1 | 0.77 | $48,510 | $48,320 |
| Minnesota | 390 | 0.1 | 1.60 | $50,040 | $49,840 |
| Texas | 350 | 0.0 | 0.31 | $39,770 | $37,090 |
| Georgia | 330 | 0.1 | 0.83 | $55,000 | $51,410 |
| Oregon | 250 | 0.1 | 1.56 | $62,000 | $65,020 |
| Washington | 250 | 0.1 | 0.87 | $49,350 | $48,660 |
| New York | 210 | 0.0 | 0.27 | $55,950 | $51,770 |
| Connecticut | 180 | 0.1 | 1.31 | $55,830 | $50,990 |
| Mississippi | 140 | 0.1 | 1.51 | $40,540 | $39,370 |
| South Carolina | 140 | 0.1 | 0.74 | $37,110 | $35,070 |
| Massachusetts | 120 | 0.0 | 0.41 | $51,830 | $49,490 |
| Virginia | 110 | 0.0 | 0.32 | $51,550 | $46,850 |
| Arkansas | 100 | 0.1 | 0.96 | $38,030 | $37,020 |
| Utah | 90 | 0.1 | 0.67 | $45,870 | $45,630 |
| Nebraska | 80 | 0.1 | 0.99 | $46,690 | $46,780 |
| North Carolina | 80 | 0.0 | 0.21 | $46,270 | $49,040 |
| Florida | 70 | 0.0 | 0.08 | $43,480 | $35,410 |
| Colorado | 60 | 0.0 | 0.25 | $45,360 | $45,410 |
| New Hampshire | 50 | 0.1 | 0.94 | $43,160 | $44,550 |
| Oklahoma | 50 | 0.0 | 0.38 | $36,980 | $35,150 |
| Kansas | n/p | n/p | n/p | $43,220 | $42,160 |
| Kentucky | n/p | n/p | n/p | $40,790 | $40,940 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Foundry Mold and Coremakers stands number 645 by employment and number 628 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% less than its group median, and it supplies 0.1% of the group's 8,743,430 jobs. In 15 of the 32 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $45,700, 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
St. Louis, MO-IL is the largest metro employer with 460 jobs, 3.6% of the national total. Employment rank and pay rank are different lists: the second table re-sorts metros with at least 500 jobs in this occupation by mean pay, the floor keeping a handful of workers from posing as a market.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis, MO-IL | 460 | $58,570 | $59,350 |
| Cleveland, OH | 380 | $47,940 | $47,560 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 380 | $49,940 | $45,920 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 360 | $45,900 | $42,780 |
| Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ | 330 | $43,800 | $42,920 |
| Muskegon-Norton Shores, MI | 290 | $43,700 | $42,930 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | 220 | $48,750 | $48,320 |
| Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI | 220 | $49,230 | $45,490 |
| Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI | 200 | $47,960 | $45,340 |
| Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | 200 | $63,790 | $65,020 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
The median annual wage of $45,700 works out to $3,808 a month before taxes, $1,758 per biweekly paycheck, and $879 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($39,370) to the 75th ($51,360) is worth $11,990 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 $50,270 would sit between the median ($45,700) and the 75th percentile ($51,360), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $39,370, is $6,330 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: Tool and Die Makers, Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, 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. The Careers hub carries the whole branch, group by group.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Foundry Mold and Coremakers make an hour?
The median hourly wage is $21.97, and the mean hourly wage is $22.55, from the May 2024 OEWS estimates. Annual figures for Foundry Mold and Coremakers use the survey's 2,080-hour year where a conversion is needed, which is how the $45,700 annual median and the hourly figures reconcile.
Which state pays Foundry Mold and Coremakers the most?
Oregon, with a median annual wage of $65,020 across 250 jobs. The full state table on this page ranks every publishing state by employment and shows median and mean side by side.
How big is the Foundry Mold and Coremakers workforce?
12,720 wage and salary workers in May 2024, 0.01% of U.S. employment in the survey. Employment concentrates most in Iowa by location quotient (4.75).
How current is this Foundry Mold and Coremakers salary data?
These are the May 2024 OEWS estimates behind the $45,700 median and the 12,720 job count on this page, released by BLS on April 2, 2025 and downloaded on November 5, 2026. OEWS is an employer survey, so those figures describe wages actually paid in this occupation, not advertised ranges.