- Iowa ranks 36th of the 50 states and DC for median pay in this trade.
- Iowa pays more than 2 of its 6 neighboring states.
- BLS counts about 2,880 machinists on payrolls in Iowa.
- At the state median wage, a machine shop needs to bill about $119.16 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
Machinist pay in Iowa, 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 | $21.39 | $44,500 | $18.85 |
| 25th percentile | $23.65 | $49,190 | $22.87 |
| Median | $27.66 | $57,540 | $28.24 |
| 75th percentile | $29.58 | $61,530 | $32.55 |
| 90th percentile | $34.21 | $71,160 | $38.47 |
| Average (mean) | $27.39 | $56,960 | $28.52 |
Pay is bunched up in Iowa. The top tenth earn $34.21 an hour or more, about 1.6 times the $21.39 at the bottom tenth. Nationally that gap is 2 times, so the step from the bottom of the scale to the top is shorter here than in most places.
The floor is higher than nationally ($21.39 against $18.85) but the ceiling is lower ($34.21 against $38.47), which squeezes pay toward the middle.
The average, $27.39, is close to the median, so pay sits fairly evenly around the middle.
How Iowa compares with other states
Over a full year the gap to the national median is small: $57,540 in Iowa against $58,750 nationally, $1,210 less.
In the state ranking, Iowa sits 36th, between Rhode Island ($27.77) and California ($27.49). The range runs from $22.77 in West Virginia to $40.58 in Hawaii.
Against its neighboring states, Iowa is in the middle: Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin pay more, and Nebraska and South Dakota pay less.
Every state ranked, with the national pay range: national machinist salary by state.
How many machinists work in Iowa
About 2,880 machinists work on payrolls in Iowa, 1.0% of the 287,050 nationwide, the 29th largest count among the states.
That is 1.8 of every 1,000 jobs in Iowa, close to the trade's share of jobs nationally.
What a machine shop in Iowa should charge
Say you run a machine shop in Iowa and pay the state median of $27.66 an hour. Here is the labor rate calculator's math on 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 | $27.66 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $61,934 |
| Break-even rate | ($61,934 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $101.29 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $101.29 ÷ 0.85 | $119.16 |
That is $119.16 per billable hour, 4.3 times the wage, and $1.02 less than the $120.18 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $29.58 in Iowa, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $122.54.
A cheaper crew saves less than it seems: at the 25th percentile wage of $23.65, the rate only drops to $112.12.
Overhead, at $60 of every billed hour, and the unbilled hours move this rate more than a raise does. A dollar more in wages adds about $1.76 to the rate.
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.