Start with the answer
Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic pay in Bend, OR and Canton-Massillon, OH
The May 2025 BLS OEWS median for Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic is $60,180 per year in Bend, OR. It is $67,210 per year in Canton-Massillon, OH. Bend, OR is 10.5% below Canton-Massillon, OH on the published median.
Both rows use SOC 51-4033 and the same annual wage metric. Median means the middle of each area's published wage spread. It is not one worker's pay. The larger median is not proof that one place gives a better job or a better result. It is one wage fact from one source period.
BLS lists 40 wage and salary jobs in Bend, OR and 350 in Canton-Massillon, OH. Those are survey job counts, not open posts. Read pay, job scale, local share, and price level as separate facts before you make a choice.
Evidence: bls-oews-may-2025 · Rule: same-soc-same-metric-pair · nominal-median-gap · employment-not-openings
