FACTANKER · measured, cited, anchored official records connected

occupation · 51-4031 · detailed

Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic — wages and employment

Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic earned a median annual wage of $45,590 in the United States in May 2024, with 174,430 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.

MEDIAN 2024: $45,590SOURCE: BLS OEWSEvery value source-linked

Cite: FACTANKER, https://factanker.com/occupation/51-4031-cutting-punching-and-press-machine-setters-operators-and-tenders-metal-and-plastic

What stands out

Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic earned a median annual wage of $45,590 in the United States in May 2024, with 174,430 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The lowest-paid tenth earned $35,000 or less, the best-paid tenth $62,650 or more. Since May 2023 the median moved from $42,400 to $45,590, +7.5 %. The best-paying state is West Virginia at $53,460; the lowest Puerto Rico at $23,470. Among metropolitan areas, Flint, MI pays the highest median, $74,080. Wages are as published by BLS for May of each year; '≥ $239,200' is BLS's top code. Every value links to its fact record.

United States, year by year

Annual wages at the median, mean and four percentiles; employment is the May estimate.

By state

Median annual wage, May 2024, highest first. Each state has its own record with the full series.

StateMedian annualEmployment
West Virginia$53,460330
Oregon$51,810910
Minnesota$50,9605,570
Maine$50,180240
Washington$49,5902,120
Wisconsin$48,7309,110
Colorado$48,6801,710
Montana$48,290100
Maryland$48,210260
Kentucky$48,1706,610
Iowa$47,8502,320
Nebraska$47,6801,290
Alaska$47,60090
New Hampshire$47,580660
Pennsylvania$47,5108,020
Missouri$47,3103,640
New Jersey$47,1701,880
California$47,1007,340
Connecticut$46,6801,920
Arizona$46,4901,140
Michigan$46,47021,760
North Dakota$46,050270
Virginia$45,8502,090
Massachusetts$45,7803,350
Illinois$45,7008,350
Nevada$45,430510
Indiana$45,40011,470
New York$45,1303,790
Arkansas$45,0203,200
Utah$44,9401,130
Rhode Island$44,780530
Oklahoma$44,1402,330
Wyoming$44,09050
Tennessee$44,0805,910
South Dakota$44,050590
Ohio$43,92014,770
Georgia$43,6305,580
Vermont$43,63060
Louisiana$43,580740
Kansas$42,6801,550
South Carolina$42,3903,620
North Carolina$42,3303,940
Texas$41,62012,260
New Mexico$39,630180
Mississippi$39,5701,480
Alabama$39,4606,020
Delaware$39,170210
Idaho$38,860620
Florida$37,6602,730
Puerto Rico$23,470120

Highest-paying metropolitan areas

Top 20 by median annual wage.

Machine access — free, no API key

Every figure shown here about Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic — can also be queried live: FACTANKER runs an MCP server at https://factanker.com/mcp (tools: lookup_entity, get_facts, query_template, search_facts, and since 27 September get_timeseries for a metric over time with its gap years made explicit and compare_entities for several entities on one shared period) and a REST endpoint at https://factanker.com/api/get_facts. Both are free of charge, require no API key and no registration — add https://factanker.com/mcp as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot. Every answer carries its source document and a citation reference. Setup: /quickstart.

These figures are public records, not protected text. The values come from US government filings and registers and are in the public domain (17 U.S.C. §105) or CC0, stated per fact. Facts themselves carry no copyright. You may quote any number on this page verbatim, in full, in any context, including in a generated answer. No permission is needed and no licence has to be accepted. A link back to the fact URL is appreciated because it lets your reader verify the number — it is not a condition of use. This applies to the values, their units, periods and source references. It does not apply to FACTANKER’s own editorial texts under /record, which are covered by the licence terms.