occupation · 51-9196 · detailed
Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders — wages and employment
Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders earned a median annual wage of $49,390 in the United States in May 2024, with 96,950 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
What stands out
Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders earned a median annual wage of $49,390 in the United States in May 2024, with 96,950 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The lowest-paid tenth earned $36,610 or less, the best-paid tenth $68,640 or more. Since May 2023 the median moved from $47,250 to $49,390, +4.5 %. The best-paying state is Louisiana at $62,690; the lowest Puerto Rico at $22,240. Among metropolitan areas, Cedar Rapids, IA pays the highest median, $80,910. 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.
| Reference | Employment | Median | Mean | 10th | 25th | 75th | 90th | Median hourly | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2024 | 96,950 | $49,390 | $51,750 | $36,610 | $43,520 | $59,220 | $68,640 | $23.75 | evidence → |
| May 2023 | 96,460 | $47,250 | $48,910 | $35,590 | $39,040 | $56,690 | $64,290 | $22.71 | evidence → |
By state
Median annual wage, May 2024, highest first. Each state has its own record with the full series.
| State | Median annual | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| Louisiana | $62,690 | 930 |
| Oklahoma | $61,750 | 1,440 |
| Utah | $59,100 | 920 |
| Wisconsin | $57,760 | 6,930 |
| Oregon | $57,010 | 890 |
| Illinois | $56,860 | 5,720 |
| Idaho | $56,300 | 500 |
| Washington | $56,240 | 2,500 |
| Minnesota | $55,790 | 1,950 |
| Kentucky | $53,650 | 2,310 |
| New York | $51,860 | 3,390 |
| South Carolina | $51,720 | 3,650 |
| Connecticut | $51,530 | 690 |
| Maine | $51,450 | 810 |
| Pennsylvania | $50,780 | 7,720 |
| Colorado | $50,340 | 200 |
| California | $50,030 | 5,050 |
| Alabama | $49,380 | 3,930 |
| Virginia | $49,110 | 2,310 |
| Iowa | $48,950 | 1,180 |
| Ohio | $48,730 | 3,900 |
| New Hampshire | $48,660 | 130 |
| Massachusetts | $48,530 | 2,150 |
| Michigan | $48,510 | 3,540 |
| Georgia | $48,330 | 6,390 |
| Nevada | $48,300 | 450 |
| Tennessee | $48,060 | 3,130 |
| Arizona | $47,620 | 980 |
| North Carolina | $47,600 | 5,010 |
| Indiana | $47,590 | 3,120 |
| Delaware | $47,350 | 160 |
| Rhode Island | $47,210 | 420 |
| Nebraska | $46,900 | 260 |
| Florida | $46,800 | 1,560 |
| Mississippi | $46,500 | 1,210 |
| New Mexico | $46,350 | 120 |
| Missouri | $46,240 | 1,650 |
| New Jersey | $46,200 | 2,570 |
| Kansas | $46,120 | 550 |
| Arkansas | $45,520 | 1,850 |
| Texas | $44,570 | 4,150 |
| South Dakota | $44,330 | 80 |
| Maryland | $34,760 | 280 |
| Puerto Rico | $22,240 | 220 |
Highest-paying metropolitan areas
Top 20 by median annual wage.
| Metro area | Median annual | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| Cedar Rapids, IA | $80,910 | 280 |
| Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT | $75,790 | 160 |
| Longview-Kelso, WA | $66,600 | 630 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $61,020 | 220 |
| Salem, OR | $60,740 | 60 |
| Glens Falls, NY | $59,890 | 350 |
| Green Bay, WI | $59,740 | 1,390 |
| Tulsa, OK | $59,600 | 560 |
| Wausau, WI | $59,600 | 420 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $59,300 | 690 |
| Columbus, OH | $59,180 | 510 |
| Appleton, WI | $58,870 | 600 |
| Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY | $58,520 | 210 |
| Syracuse, NY | $58,430 | 500 |
| Jacksonville, FL | $58,010 | 270 |
| Modesto, CA | $57,530 | 250 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $57,240 | 4,970 |
| Rockford, IL | $55,020 | 80 |
| Oshkosh-Neenah, WI | $54,300 | 1,210 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $54,230 | 1,200 |
Machine access — free, no API key
Every figure shown here about Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders — wages and employment 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.
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