Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic Salary

It’s a stretch — at the median salary of $52K, rent takes 36.7% of take-home pay. A 2-bedroom at the HUD Fair Market Rent runs $1,272/month. The 30% guideline puts the comfortable ceiling at roughly $1,000/month in rent — so roommates or a 1-bedroom would ease the math significantly.

The 10th-percentile wage — what new drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastics typically earn — is $50K/year. Take-home on that works out to about $2,975/month. At HUD’s $1,272/month FMR, rent would take 43% of that take-home — above the 30% guideline, so a 1-bedroom or shared housing is likely necessary starting out.

Pay here is roughly in line with the national average — $52K locally vs. $49K nationally, a 5% difference.

Louisville/Jefferson County pays $52K median vs. the U.S. average of $49K — that’s +5%. After adjusting for local cost of living (RPP 93.07), the purchasing-power equivalent is $56K — still ahead of the national median.

The median is $51,740 a year, that works out to about $25 an hour. But the range is wide: entry-level workers start around $49,580, and experienced drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastics can clear $51,890. These are BLS numbers, based on employer-reported data, not self-reported surveys.

On that salary, you'd take home roughly $3,462/month after taxes. A 2-bedroom here rents for about $1,272/month, which eats 36.7% of your paycheck. That's above the 30% rule of thumb, housing will be a stretch at the median salary, though you can manage with roommates or a smaller place.

Louisville/Jefferson County has a Regional Price Parity of 93.07 (100 is the national average). That's below average, your money stretches further here than the raw salary number suggests. After cost-of-living adjustment, the median drilling and boring machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic salary is worth about $55,593 in national-average purchasing power.

The table above ranks every state by median pay for this role. Keep in mind that the highest-paying states tend to have the highest costs of living, so the top salary doesn't always mean the most money in your pocket.