Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic Salary

It’s a stretch — at the median salary of $47K, rent takes 35% of take-home pay. A 2-bedroom at the HUD Fair Market Rent runs $1,110/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 molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastics typically earn — is $34K/year. Take-home on that works out to about $2,038/month. At HUD’s $1,110/month FMR, rent would take 54% 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 — $47K locally vs. $44K nationally, a 6% difference.

Kentucky pays $47K median vs. the U.S. average of $44K — that’s +6%. After adjusting for local cost of living (RPP 90.23), the purchasing-power equivalent is $52K — still ahead of the national median.

The median is $47,110 a year, that works out to about $23 an hour. But the range is wide: entry-level workers start around $33,970, and experienced molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastics can clear $67,810. These are BLS numbers, based on employer-reported data, not self-reported surveys.

On that salary, you'd take home roughly $3,167/month after taxes. A 2-bedroom here rents for about $1,110/month, which eats 35% 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.

Kentucky has a Regional Price Parity of 90.23 (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 molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic salary is worth about $52,211 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.