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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Average Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, And Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, And Tenders, Metal And Plastic Salary in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC

Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, And Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, And Tenders, Metal And Plastic in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC earn a median annual salary of $48,140, which is +6.5% compared to the national median. There are 30 workers employed locally in this occupation.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2024 estimates for Durham-Chapel Hill, NC (metro area).

$48,140
Durham-Chapel Hill, NC median annual wage
$23/hour median
+6.5%
Difference vs national median
National median is $45,190
30
Local employment
0.1 jobs per 1,000 workers
0.20
Location quotient
Above 1.00 means the occupation is more concentrated here than nationally

Pay distribution

Local wage range

10th
$34,980
25th
$39,530
Median
$48,140
75th
$58,760
90th
$61,470

All values are percentiles of annual wages.

This local range is the useful part of the page. The median tells you the center of the market in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, while the percentile band shows how compressed or wide the local pay distribution actually is.

Regional price parity

Cost-of-living context

All-items regional price parity
97.6%
Exact metro RPP match
Median wage adjusted to the national price level
$49,338
Goods: 96.6%
Services: 89.3%
Rents: 98.9%

Comparison links

Comparable metros for this occupation

MetroMedian annual wageCompareEmployment
St. Louis, MO-IL$58,920Compare1,100
St. Cloud, MN$55,580Compare70
Fort Smith, AR-OK$55,410Compare110
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA$55,280Compare920
Spartanburg, SC$53,350Compare200
Asheville, NC$53,180Compare100

The point of this table is not random nearby places. It is to show the other labor markets where this same occupation looks stronger or weaker on the same OEWS release.

Area context

Top occupations in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC

Durham-Chapel Hill, NC has salary data for 469 occupations. The highest-paid occupation in this area is Family Medicine Physicians.

Historical series

Trend for Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, And Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, And Tenders, Metal And Plastic in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC

Historical trend data is not yet available for this occupation in this area.

Interpretation

Outlook and page notes

Nationally, Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, And Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, And Tenders, Metal And Plastic are projected to change by -12.0% from 2024 to 2034, with 5,500 annual openings.

Use this page to answer three separate questions: what the occupation pays here, how large the local market is, and whether this market is unusually concentrated for the occupation.

For metro pages in particular, read long-term trend rows as directional until the area comparability layer is fully wired. OEWS area definitions can change over time, and that matters more at the metro level than at the state level.