- No state pays machinists more at the median.
- Hawaii pays more than both nearby states it is compared with.
- BLS counts about 260 machinists on payrolls in Hawaii.
- At the state median wage, a machine shop needs to bill about $141.85 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
Machinist pay in Hawaii, bottom to top
The BLS machinist group covers people who set up and run machine tools such as lathes, mills and grinders to make precision metal parts. Tool and die makers and CNC programmers are counted separately.
| Pay level | Hourly | Yearly | National hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $26.90 | $55,950 | $18.85 |
| 25th percentile | $30.47 | $63,380 | $22.87 |
| Median | $40.58 | $84,410 | $28.24 |
| 75th percentile | $44.59 | $92,750 | $32.55 |
| 90th percentile | $51.43 | $106,970 | $38.47 |
| Average (mean) | $39.24 | $81,610 | $28.52 |
From the bottom tenth ($26.90) to the top tenth ($51.43), the top of the scale pays about 1.9 times the bottom in Hawaii, close to the 2 times spread for machinists nationwide.
Both ends of the scale beat the national figures: $26.90 against $18.85 at the bottom tenth, and $51.43 against $38.47 at the top.
The average wage ($39.24) is a little under the median, so the low end of the range stretches further than the high end in Hawaii.
How Hawaii compares with other states
Over a full year, the Hawaii median of $84,410 is $25,660 more than the national $58,750.
No state pays more. The next highest is Alaska at $37.34, and the lowest is West Virginia at $22.77.
Hawaii has no land border, so it is set here against California and Alaska. Hawaii pays more than both.
These are wages as paid, not adjusted for what it costs to live in Hawaii. Rent, home prices and taxes decide how far a higher wage goes.
Every state ranked, with the national pay range: national machinist salary by state.
| Nearby state | Median hourly | Median yearly | Against Hawaii |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | $40.58 | $84,410 | |
| California | $27.49 | $57,190 | −$13.09 an hour |
| Alaska | $37.34 | $77,670 | −$3.24 an hour |
How many machinists work in Hawaii
Hawaii has one of the smaller workforces in the trade: 260 machinists on payrolls, under 0.1% of the 287,050 nationwide.
It is a smaller part of local jobs than in most of the country, at 0.4 per 1,000 jobs, 0.22 times the national share.
What a machine shop in Hawaii should charge
Higher wages in Hawaii go straight into the price. Take a machine shop in Hawaii paying the state median of $40.58 and run it through the labor rate calculator with its starting numbers (40-hour weeks, 10 paid days off, 2 unbilled hours a day, 7.65% payroll taxes, $90,000 a year of overhead and 15% profit).
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid hours | 40 × 52 | 2,080 |
| Hours at work | 2,080 − 10 days × 8 | 2,000 |
| Billable hours | 2,000 × 6 ÷ 8 | 1,500 |
| Labor cost | $40.58 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $90,863 |
| Break-even rate | ($90,863 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $120.58 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $120.58 ÷ 0.85 | $141.85 |
That is $141.85 per billable hour, 3.5 times the wage, and $21.67 more than the $120.18 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $44.59 in Hawaii, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $148.90.
At this wage the pay itself is the biggest part of the price, so every raise shows up in the rate: a dollar more an hour adds about $1.76 per billed hour.
Run it with your own numbers in the labor rate calculator. It is free and shows every step.
Where these numbers come from
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
The figures are the BLS state estimates for SOC 51-4041, machinists, across all industries, read straight from the May 2025 state data file. They cover wage and salary workers, not the self-employed. Where BLS did not publish a figure, this page leaves it out.
All states in one table: machinist salary by state.