Home / Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic / Best Cities Best Cities for Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastics Cities ranked by purchasing power — where milling and planing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastics get the most value from their salary after accounting for cost of living. A score above 1.00 means better than national average.
How we calculate this: City Score = (Local Salary ÷ National Median) ÷ (Local Cost ÷ National Avg Cost). A score of 1.20 means 20% better purchasing power than average.
# Location Score Raw Salary Adjusted Salary Rent/Income 1 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metro 1.75 $105,430 $92,240 25% 2 Washington State 1.53 $86,460 $80,578 26% 3 Kentucky State 1.42 $66,440 $75,073 17% 4 Connecticut State 1.40 $79,300 $73,699 24% 5 Illinois State 1.23 $63,360 $65,051 25% 6 Nebraska State 1.23 $59,630 $65,169 21% 7 Indiana State 1.21 $57,720 $63,779 22% 8 Wisconsin State 1.21 $58,770 $63,673 22% 9 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro 1.20 $61,340 $63,107 31% 10 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI Metro 1.19 $62,530 $62,844 28% 11 Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metro 1.18 $56,970 $62,467 26% 12 Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Metro 1.11 $62,220 $58,809 32% 13 Iowa State 1.10 $51,600 $57,848 22% 14 Kansas City, MO-KS Metro 1.10 $53,990 $58,179 29% 15 Massachusetts State 1.09 $62,380 $57,493 43% 16 Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro 1.09 $65,540 $57,744 47% 17 Minnesota State 1.07 $55,210 $56,337 28% 18 Ohio State 1.07 $51,310 $56,759 24% 19 Texas State 1.07 $53,840 $56,318 31% 20 Virginia State 1.03 $56,410 $54,502 34% 21 Columbus, OH Metro 1.03 $50,860 $54,396 31% 22 Missouri State 1.02 $47,680 $53,815 26% 23 West Virginia State 1.02 $45,440 $53,967 22% 24 California State 1.01 $59,050 $53,342 46% 25 Nevada State 1.00 $52,800 $52,695 33% 26 South Carolina State 1.00 $48,340 $52,543 31% 27 Pittsburgh, PA Metro 1.00 $48,960 $52,930 29% 28 Michigan State 0.99 $48,400 $52,438 28% 29 North Carolina State 0.99 $49,210 $52,129 32% 30 Arkansas State 0.98 $44,440 $51,495 24% 31 Colorado State 0.97 $53,780 $51,025 41% 32 Maryland State 0.97 $56,080 $51,355 36% 33 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metro 0.97 $49,580 $51,219 39% 34 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metro 0.97 $49,210 $51,367 37% 35 New York State 0.95 $56,560 $50,276 39% 36 Pennsylvania State 0.93 $47,690 $49,165 33% 37 Arizona State 0.92 $48,760 $48,325 37% 38 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro 0.91 $49,630 $47,952 39% 39 Tennessee State 0.90 $43,710 $47,770 34% 40 Florida State 0.88 $47,220 $46,522 44% 41 New Hampshire State 0.88 $49,230 $46,443 39% 42 New Jersey State 0.88 $50,530 $46,443 43% 43 Utah State 0.88 $46,580 $46,487 38% 44 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metro 0.88 $54,090 $46,429 50% 45 Mississippi State 0.87 $39,100 $46,108 27% 46 Maine State 0.86 $45,210 $45,301 34% 47 Oklahoma State 0.86 $40,250 $45,480 29% 48 Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metro 0.81 $41,210 $42,838 45% 49 Alabama State 0.78 $35,760 $41,056 32% 50 Georgia State 0.78 $38,340 $41,049 44%
Data Sources: Salary: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS). Cost of Living: BEA Regional Price Parities (2024). Rent: HUD Fair Market Rents (FY2025).