Occupation / job
Plating Machine 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 $43,960 against $50,020, this pays $505 a month less than the typical American job. Below the midpoint but within reach of it: the spread and the floor below decide whether that description flatters Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic or not.
At 32,410 employed, this is a mid-sized occupation. In a normal city that means several possible employers and a genuine market rate, which is the point at which knowing the numbers on this page starts to be worth money.
This work suits people who like setting a machine up properly and then producing consistently, which is a different skill from making one good part.
How long it takes to become one of the 32,410 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
$12,340 separates the bottom quarter at $37,260 from the top quarter at $49,600, a ratio of 1.3x. In a band that tight, moving up inside Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic pays less than moving out of it would.
A quarter of the field earns under $37,260 — $12,760 below the $50,020 the typical American job pays. That is the number to plan on for a first year, not the midpoint.
Avoid it if you could not move should the plant go, because these jobs are concentrated where the plants are.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 32,410 figure counts people already working as Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic, not everyone who trained and never got hired. Without a licensing register to divide by, a rate here would be an invented denominator.
What the spread tells you
At 1.3x between $37,260 and $49,600, this is a narrow distribution. $43,960 is a reliable number to plan around, which is worth something — but so is knowing that outperforming the field will not be paid for.
The middle half of this field earns between $37,260 and $49,600. That is $12,340 of range, with $43,960 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Between $37,260 and $49,600 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $43,960. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $5,640; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $12,340.
There is $6,700 between $37,260 and $43,960, and $5,640 between $43,960 and $49,600. The lower half of the range is marginally the longer one — worth knowing if you would be entering Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic at the bottom of it.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic is $21.13 an hour. The quarters sit at $17.91 and $23.84, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $43,960 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic, the hourly figure is $43,960 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else