Occupation / job
Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
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
At $49,080 against $50,020, Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic sits $0.45 an hour under the typical American job. A gap that small is not a reason to choose it or to rule it out; the spread and the entry cost are where the real decision is.
With 4,680 employed nationally, Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic is a small occupation. Small occupations are quiet: few postings, slow turnover, and a real chance that the person you would replace is not going anywhere.
Metal and plastic work suits people who want a measurable craft — the tolerance is either held or it is not — and who like being judged on something objective.
We carry no verified training length for Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
A quarter of Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic earn under $41,710 and a quarter over $57,940 — 1.4x, or $16,230 apart. Narrow spreads usually mean a pay schedule, which is stability bought at the price of upside.
Even the bottom quarter, under $41,710, lands within $8,310 of the $50,020 typical American wage. The downside of Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic is not really the money.
Avoid it if you would resent the shift pattern; much of this work runs nights because the machines do.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 4,680 people employed as Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
Top quarter to bottom quarter is 1.4x. In a band that narrow, $49,080 is a genuinely representative number for Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic and the main variable left is where you live.
The middle half of this field earns between $41,710 and $57,940. That is $16,230 of range, with $49,080 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
The 75th percentile is $57,940. Reaching it from the $49,080 midpoint is $8,860 a year; reaching it from the $41,710 that the bottom quarter of Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic earn is $16,230.
The climb from $49,080 to $57,940 is $8,860; the drop to $41,710 is $7,370. A little more room above the midpoint than below it is the normal shape for Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic and for most paid work, and it is the reason the median is the honest summary rather than the average.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic is $23.59 an hour. The quarters sit at $20.05 and $27.85, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Employers reported these wages for people already working as Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic. The self-employed are excluded, so $49,080 does not describe an independent doing the same work.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $49,080 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