What Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders earn in Kendall County, IL
According to the latest federal wage data for the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area, the median pay for Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Kendall County, IL is $50,230 a year, or $24.15 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $40,143 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Kendall County, IL.
The mean wage is $54,770, which is 9.0% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 6,550 people working in this occupation across the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Kendall County, IL has roughly 137,675 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $39,220 a year ($18.86 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $73,800 or more ($35.48 an hour). That is a gap of $34,580 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $45,740 at the 25th percentile and $62,380 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.9 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $24.15 an hour or $50,230 a year at the median for Kendall County, IL. Before any deductions, that is $4,186 a month, $1,932 every two weeks and $966 each week. After taxes the same job pays $19.30 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders this way: "Set up, operate, or tend machines to mix or blend materials, such as chemicals, tobacco, liquids, color pigments, or explosive ingredients."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Weigh or measure materials, ingredients, or products to ensure conformance to requirements"; "Operate or tend machines to mix or blend any of a wide variety of materials, such as spices, dough batter, tobacco, fruit juices, chemicals, livestock feed, food products, color pigments, or explosive ingredients"; "Dump or pour specified amounts of materials into machinery or equipment"; "Observe production or monitor equipment to ensure safe and efficient operation".
Job outlook for Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to shrink from 97,300 jobs in 2025 to 91,400 in 2035, a change of -6.1%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 7,900 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 8.1% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: moderate-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $48,990 for this occupation; the Kendall County, IL median of $50,230 is 2.5% above it.
How pay in Kendall County, IL compares
Compared with the Illinois average
Pay in Kendall County, IL runs $721 below the Illinois average of $50,951, a gap of 1.4%. A worker who moved to a better-paying part of Illinois would, on paper, gain that difference before taxes. Within Illinois, Kendall County, IL already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders is $49,698 across the contiguous United States. At $50,230, Kendall County, IL pays $532 more, which is 1.1% above that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Kendall County, IL
Among the 618 occupations with published wages in Kendall County, IL, Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders ranks number 425 by median pay, ahead of about 31% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers at $293,490 a year, which is $243,260 more than the median for Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders earning the Kendall County, IL median of $50,230, they add up to $10,087. The result is $40,143 of take-home pay a year ($3,345 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $20 goes to taxes and $80 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 20.1%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $34,480. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $3,899, an effective 7.8% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $3,114 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $728. FICA totals $3,843, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Illinois
Illinois income tax on this salary is $2,345 a year, or 4.7% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 60% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $195 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Kendall County, IL
IRS Statistics of Income data for Kendall County, IL show an average adjusted gross income of $92,441 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 12.1% across all filers. Filers in the $50,000 to under $75,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 7.0%, compared with the 7.8% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Kendall County, IL
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Kendall County, IL: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $40,143 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Kendall County, IL, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,790 a month ($21,480 a year), and at $2,341 for two bedrooms. For Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, a one-bedroom absorbs 53.5% of take-home pay and 42.8% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 6.8% of gross pay for Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Kendall County, IL. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Illinois residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,677 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $434, for $2,110 in total. Gasoline in Illinois averages $3.18 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,471.
What is left over
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $28,497 a year in Kendall County, IL. Subtract that from $40,143 of take-home pay and $11,646 remains, which is $971 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 23.2% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Kendall County, IL
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Kendall County, IL: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Kendall County, IL, set beside the Illinois and national medians.
Property taxes in Kendall County, IL
Homeowners in Kendall County, IL pay a median of $7,651 a year in real estate taxes, 44% above the Illinois median of $5,298 and 145% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $322,400, the median tax bill is 2.37% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders median of $50,230, a tax bill of that size would equal 15.2% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Kendall County, IL
Renters in Kendall County, IL pay a median gross rent of $1,781 a month in the Census survey, 40% above the Illinois median of $1,274. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,790 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $322,400, 22% above the Illinois median of $263,300. Median household income is $111,601, 34% above the Illinois median of $83,390, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 19.2% of that income.
Commuting in Kendall County, IL
Workers in Kendall County, IL who travel to a workplace spend an average of 31.6 minutes each way, 14% above the Illinois average of 27.8. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.3 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 14.7% of workers in Kendall County, IL work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders afford to live in Kendall County, IL?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $50,230 that ceiling is $1,256 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,790 is $534 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $34.42 an hour; the median for Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders is $24.15, which is 30% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $19.30 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 21.4 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,341 a month means $1,171 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $7,434 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $19,080.
How fast you can save
At $971 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 11 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 22 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders pay in Kendall County, IL
How much do Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders make per hour in Kendall County, IL?
The median is $24.15 per hour, based on $50,230 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $18.86 at the 10th percentile to $35.48 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders take home after taxes in Kendall County, IL?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $50,230 becomes $40,143 a year. That is $3,345 a month, $1,544 every two weeks or $772 a week.
How much tax do Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders pay in Kendall County, IL?
Total taxes are $10,087 a year, an effective rate of 20.1%: $3,899 federal income tax, $3,843 FICA and $2,345 Illinois income tax.
Do Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders earn more in Kendall County, IL than elsewhere in Illinois?
No. The local median of $50,230 is -1.4% versus the Illinois average of $50,951, a difference of $721 a year.
Can Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders afford a one-bedroom apartment in Kendall County, IL?
A one-bedroom costs $1,790 a month against take-home pay of $3,345, which is 53.5% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,256 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Kendall County, IL?
About $971 a month ($11,646 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $28,497 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Kendall County, IL at the 30% guideline?
$34.42 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $21,480 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders is $24.15.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Illinois rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.