- Utah ranks 15th of the 50 states and DC for median pay in this trade.
- Utah pays more than 5 of its 6 neighboring states.
- BLS counts about 3,810 machinists on payrolls in Utah.
- At the state median wage, a machine shop needs to bill about $122.33 an hour on the labor rate calculator's starting numbers.
Machinist pay in Utah, 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 | $20.75 | $43,160 | $18.85 |
| 25th percentile | $24.00 | $49,920 | $22.87 |
| Median | $29.46 | $61,280 | $28.24 |
| 75th percentile | $35.76 | $74,390 | $32.55 |
| 90th percentile | $38.51 | $80,110 | $38.47 |
| Average (mean) | $29.71 | $61,800 | $28.52 |
Pay is bunched up in Utah. The top tenth earn $38.51 an hour or more, about 1.9 times the $20.75 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.
Both ends of the scale beat the national figures: $20.75 against $18.85 at the bottom tenth, and $38.51 against $38.47 at the top.
The average, $29.71, is close to the median, so pay sits fairly evenly around the middle.
How Utah compares with other states
Over a full year the gap to the national median is small: $61,280 in Utah against $58,750 nationally, $2,530 more.
In the state ranking, Utah sits 15th, between Virginia ($29.47) and Minnesota ($29.39). The range runs from $22.77 in West Virginia to $40.58 in Hawaii.
Against its neighboring states, Utah is in the middle: Wyoming pays more, and Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico pay less.
Every state ranked, with the national pay range: national machinist salary by state.
How many machinists work in Utah
About 3,810 machinists work on payrolls in Utah, 1.3% of the 287,050 nationwide, the 26th largest count among the states.
That is 2.2 of every 1,000 jobs in Utah, close to the trade's share of jobs nationally.
What a machine shop in Utah should charge
Say you run a machine shop in Utah and pay the state median of $29.46 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 | $29.46 × 2,080 × 1.0765 | $65,964 |
| Break-even rate | ($65,964 + $90,000) ÷ 1,500 | $103.98 |
| Rate with 15% profit | $103.98 ÷ 0.85 | $122.33 |
That is $122.33 per billable hour, 4.2 times the wage, and $2.14 more than the $120.18 the same math gives at the national median wage.
Paying the 75th percentile instead, $35.76 in Utah, to hire and keep experienced people raises the rate to $133.39.
A cheaper crew saves less than it seems: at the 25th percentile wage of $24.00, the rate only drops to $112.74.
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.