What Sewing Machine Operators earn in Kings County, NY
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $37,780: the median annual pay for Sewing Machine Operators in Kings County, NY. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $18.16 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $41,160, which is 8.9% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 6,700 people working in this occupation across the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Kings County, NY has roughly 2,631,580 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Sewing Machine Operators in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $33,790 a year ($16.25 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $51,360 or more ($24.69 an hour). That is a gap of $17,570 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $36,290 at the 25th percentile and $44,880 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.5 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Sewing Machine Operators in Kings County, NY is $18.16. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $37,780, and the same salary is $3,148 a month before taxes or about $1,453 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $14.91 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Sewing Machine Operators
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Sewing Machine Operators this way: "Operate or tend sewing machines to join, reinforce, decorate, or perform related sewing operations in the manufacture of garment or nongarment products."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Monitor machine operation to detect problems such as defective stitching, breaks in thread, or machine malfunctions"; "Position items under needles, using marks on machines, clamps, templates, or cloth as guides"; "Place spools of thread, cord, or other materials on spindles, insert bobbins, and thread ends through machine guides and components"; "Match cloth pieces in correct sequences prior to sewing them, and verify that dye lots and patterns match".
Job outlook for Sewing Machine Operators
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to shrink from 117,200 jobs in 2025 to 99,500 in 2035, a change of -15.1%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 9,800 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 8.4% of current employment each year. About 11.3% of the people in this occupation are self-employed, and wage figures cover wage and salary workers only.
Typical entry-level education: no formal educational credential. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $36,670 for this occupation; the Kings County, NY median of $37,780 is 3.0% above it.
How pay in Kings County, NY compares
Compared with the New York average
Pay for Sewing Machine Operators in Kings County, NY is in line with the statewide figure: $37,780 locally against an employment-weighted New York average of $37,830, a difference of only $50 (0.1%). Within New York, Kings County, NY already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Sewing Machine Operators is $36,415 across the contiguous United States. At $37,780, Kings County, NY pays $1,365 more, which is 3.8% 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 Kings County, NY
Among the 671 occupations with published wages in Kings County, NY, Sewing Machine Operators ranks number 648 by median pay, ahead of about 3% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Anesthesiologists at $460,800 a year, which is $423,020 more than the median for Sewing Machine Operators.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $37,780 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $6,768 a year, which leaves $31,012, or $2,584 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $18 goes to taxes and $82 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 17.9%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $22,030. 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 $2,405, an effective 6.4% 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 $2,342 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $548. FICA totals $2,890, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in New York
New York income tax on this salary is $1,473 a year, or 3.9% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 61% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $123 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 Kings County, NY
IRS Statistics of Income data for Kings County, NY show an average adjusted gross income of $85,914 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 16.4% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.1%, compared with the 6.4% 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 Kings County, NY
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Kings County, NY: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $31,012 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Kings County, NY is $2,729 a month, or $32,748 a year. A two-bedroom costs $2,971 a month. For Sewing Machine Operators, a one-bedroom absorbs 105.6% of take-home pay and 86.7% 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 9.1% of gross pay for Sewing Machine Operators in Kings County, NY. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using New York residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $2,581 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $653, for $3,235 in total. Gasoline in New York averages $3.17 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,467.
What is left over
The basics cost $40,885 a year in Kings County, NY, but take-home pay for Sewing Machine Operators is $31,012. That is a shortfall of $9,873 a year, or $823 a month, before health care, transportation beyond fuel, debt or savings. Closing the gap would take roughly 662 extra paid hours a year at the take-home hourly rate of $14.91, or a second earner, a cheaper home or a roommate.
Local housing and commute data for Kings County, NY
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Kings County, NY: 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 Kings County, NY, set beside the New York and national medians.
Property taxes in Kings County, NY
Homeowners in Kings County, NY pay a median of $6,382 a year in real estate taxes, 3% below the New York median of $6,582 and 105% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $905,000, the median tax bill is 0.71% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Sewing Machine Operators median of $37,780, a tax bill of that size would equal 16.9% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Kings County, NY
Renters in Kings County, NY pay a median gross rent of $1,833 a month in the Census survey, 13% above the New York median of $1,621. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $2,729 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 $905,000, 114% above the New York median of $423,800. Median household income is $80,263, 7% below the New York median of $85,974, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 40.8% of that income.
Commuting in Kings County, NY
Workers in Kings County, NY who travel to a workplace spend an average of 41.7 minutes each way, 28% above the New York average of 32.6. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 7.0 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 19.1% of workers in Kings County, NY work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Sewing Machine Operators afford to live in Kings County, NY?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $37,780 that ceiling is $945 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $2,729 is $1,785 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $52.48 an hour; the median for Sewing Machine Operators is $18.16, which is 65% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $14.91 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 42.2 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,971 a month means $1,486 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $14,922 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $5,049, which turns the shortfall into a surplus.
How fast you can save
With no monthly margin after the four basics, saving requires a change on one side of the ledger: higher pay than the $37,780 median, lower housing costs than the $2,729 one-bedroom rent, or a second income.
Frequently asked questions about Sewing Machine Operators pay in Kings County, NY
What is the hourly wage for Sewing Machine Operators in Kings County, NY?
The median is $18.16 per hour, based on $37,780 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $16.25 at the 10th percentile to $24.69 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Sewing Machine Operators in Kings County, NY?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $37,780 becomes $31,012 a year. That is $2,584 a month, $1,193 every two weeks or $596 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Sewing Machine Operators in Kings County, NY?
Total taxes are $6,768 a year, an effective rate of 17.9%: $2,405 federal income tax, $2,890 FICA and $1,473 New York income tax.
Is pay for Sewing Machine Operators in Kings County, NY above the New York average?
It is about the same. The local median of $37,780 is within 0.1% of the New York average of $37,830.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Sewing Machine Operators salary in Kings County, NY?
A one-bedroom costs $2,729 a month against take-home pay of $2,584, which is 105.6% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $945 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Sewing Machine Operators in Kings County, NY?
Nothing remains: the basics cost $40,885 a year, which is $9,873 more than take-home pay, a monthly shortfall of $823.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Kings County, NY at the 30% guideline?
$52.48 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $32,748 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Sewing Machine Operators is $18.16.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ 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 New York 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.