Occupation / job
Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders pays $48,540, effectively level with the $50,020 all-occupation midpoint — $1,480 apart, which is inside the noise of a single year’s survey. Treat this as an average-paying occupation and decide it on everything else.
With 26,000 employed as Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, most metros have a working market: several employers, visible turnover, and the ability to change jobs without moving house.
These roles suit people who want a fixed site, a known task and a shift that ends, and who would rather be reliable than promoted.
How long it takes to become one of the 26,000 people doing this is not something we have a source for. BLS counts and pays them; it does not record how they got there, and we would rather say so than guess.
Who should not do this
A quarter of Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders earn under $40,430 and a quarter over $60,040 — 1.5x, or $19,610 apart. Narrow spreads usually mean a pay schedule, which is stability bought at the price of upside.
Even the bottom quarter, under $40,430, lands within $9,590 of the $50,020 typical American wage. The downside of Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders is not really the money.
Avoid it if you need a career shape; many of these roles are flat by design.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 26,000 is a headcount of the employed, which is a numerator without a denominator — everyone who qualified and never got hired is missing from it, and we will not estimate them to complete a percentage.
What the spread tells you
The quarters are $40,430 and $60,040, a ratio of 1.5x. In a distribution this narrow, the biggest single lever on your pay in Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders is the cost of living where you do it.
In cash terms the middle half of Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders runs $40,430 to $60,040 — $19,610 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $48,540.
Getting to $60,040, the 75th percentile, is worth $11,500 a year more than the $48,540 midpoint and $19,610 more than the $40,430 a quarter of Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders settle for.
The climb from $48,540 to $60,040 is $11,500, against $8,110 down to $40,430. Rather more of the range sits above the midpoint than below it, so the realistic upside in Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders is larger than the realistic downside.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders is $23.33 an hour. The quarters sit at $19.43 and $28.86, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
This is payroll data: it comes from employers, about people they employ. Anyone doing the work of Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $48,540 describes them.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $48,540 because we have no verified record of unpaid hours or out-of-pocket costs for this work, and we would rather convert honestly than adjust invented ones.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else