2026 Edition · An annual reference on what work pays

Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

Muskegon-Norton Shores, MI metropolitan area. Estimated employment 360.

Data released May 2025 BLS OEWS · SOC 51-4031
Fig. 1 — The wage rule

Where you sit in the distribution

Drag the marker, or type a figure
$47,330 · 50th
$36,84010th
$39,81025th
$47,33050th
$49,86075th
$56,04090th

That is the medianhalf of people in this occupation in Muskegon earn more.

Table 1 — Adjusted

$47,330 in Muskegon buys what $51,200 buys across the country as a whole.

Muskegon's regional price parity is 92.5 — well below the national average — the nominal figure understates local buying power considerably. Adjusted figures for other metros are in the nearby-metros table below.

Table 2 — Nearby metros

The same job, elsewhere in Michigan

Adjusted figures apply each metro's regional price parity, so the columns are directly comparable.

Metro areaMedianAdjustedRPPvs. Muskegon
Flint$78,600$84,50093.0+65.1%
Saginaw$55,630$61,20090.9+19.6%
Detroit$50,460$50,300100.3−1.7%
Lansing$48,200$50,70095.0−0.8%
Muskegon This page$47,330$51,20092.5
Jackson$44,840$48,90091.8−4.5%
Kalamazoo$44,440$46,90094.8−8.4%
Ann Arbor$42,650$42,300100.9−17.4%

Price parity and difference against Muskegon are in the full table on wider screens.

Fig. 2 — Five-year trend

Nominal against real

The same median, once as published and once restated in 2025 dollars.

35k40k45k50k 20212022202320242025
Nominal, as published Real, in 2025 dollars US$ thousands

Published pay rose 33.1% over the five years to 2025. Adjusted for inflation it still rose 12.1% — pay has outrun prices since 2021. The two lines meet at the right edge by construction, since 2025 is the base year.

Sources

How this page was made

Wage data
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. Public domain.
Price parity
Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
Inflation
Real figures deflate by CPI-U annual averages (BLS, all items, US city average).
Employment
360 employed in this occupation in the metro (BLS estimate; excludes the self-employed).
Occupation
SOC 51-4031, Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic. Mapped to our taxonomy as cutting-punching-and-press-machine-setters-operators-and-tenders-metal-and-plastic.

Percentiles are reported exactly as released and are never interpolated between published values. We take no payment from employers, recruiters or anyone else for how any figure is presented.