What Sheet Metal Workers earn in Westchester County, NY
The median pay for Sheet Metal Workers in Westchester County, NY is $76,730 per year, which works out to $36.89 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metropolitan area, the labor market that Westchester County, NY belongs to. Half of the workers in this occupation earn more than the median and half earn less, which makes it a sturdier yardstick than an average that a few very high earners can pull upward.
The mean wage is $84,380, which is 10.0% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 6,080 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. Westchester County, NY has roughly 999,677 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Sheet Metal Workers in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $41,600 a year ($20.00 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $129,670 or more ($62.34 an hour). That is a gap of $88,070 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $53,990 at the 25th percentile and $118,790 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 3.1 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $36.89 an hour or $76,730 a year at the median for Westchester County, NY. Before any deductions, that is $6,394 a month, $2,951 every two weeks and $1,476 each week. After taxes the same job pays $28.32 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Sheet Metal Workers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Sheet Metal Workers this way: "Fabricate, assemble, install, and repair sheet metal products and equipment, such as ducts, control boxes, drainpipes, and furnace casings. Work may involve any of the following: setting up and operating fabricating machines to cut, bend, and straighten sheet metal; shaping metal over anvils, blocks, or forms using hammer; operating soldering and welding equipment to join sheet metal parts; or inspecting, assembling, and smoothing seams and joints of burred surfaces. Includes sheet metal duct installers who install prefabricated sheet metal ducts used for heating, air conditioning, or other purposes."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Install assemblies, such as flashing, pipes, tubes, heating and air conditioning ducts, furnace casings, rain gutters, or downspouts in supportive frameworks"; "Select gauges or types of sheet metal or nonmetallic material, according to product specifications"; "Fasten seams or joints together with welds, bolts, cement, rivets, solder, caulks, metal drive clips, or bonds to assemble components into products or to repair sheet metal items"; "Fabricate or alter parts at construction sites, using shears, hammers, punches, or drills".
Job outlook for Sheet Metal Workers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 131,100 jobs in 2025 to 134,400 in 2035, a change of +2.5%, 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 7.5% of current employment each year. About 8.4% of the people in this occupation are self-employed, and wage figures cover wage and salary workers only.
Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: apprenticeship. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $61,800 for this occupation; the Westchester County, NY median of $76,730 is 24.2% above it.
How pay in Westchester County, NY compares
Compared with the New York average
A worker in this occupation in Westchester County, NY earns $2,753 more than the New York average of $73,977, a premium of 3.7%. Over a year that premium is worth $2,753 before tax and roughly $2,114 after tax. Within New York, Westchester County, NY already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Sheet Metal Workers is $66,135 across the contiguous United States. At $76,730, Westchester County, NY pays $10,595 more, which is 16.0% 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 Westchester County, NY
Among the 671 occupations with published wages in Westchester County, NY, Sheet Metal Workers ranks number 319 by median pay, ahead of about 53% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Anesthesiologists at $460,800 a year, which is $384,070 more than the median for Sheet Metal Workers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For Sheet Metal Workers earning the Westchester County, NY median of $76,730, they add up to $17,815. The result is $58,915 of take-home pay a year ($4,910 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $23 goes to taxes and $77 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 23.2%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $60,980. 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 22% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $8,330, an effective 10.9% of gross pay, well below the 22% 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 $4,757 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $1,113. FICA totals $5,870, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in New York
New York income tax on this salary is $3,615 a year, or 4.7% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 43% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $301 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 Westchester County, NY
IRS Statistics of Income data for Westchester County, NY show an average adjusted gross income of $188,676 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 21.9% across all filers. Filers in the $75,000 to under $100,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 10.1%, compared with the 10.9% 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 Westchester County, NY
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Westchester County, NY: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $58,915 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Westchester County, NY, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $2,729 a month ($32,748 a year), and at $2,971 for two bedrooms. For Sheet Metal Workers, a one-bedroom absorbs 55.6% of take-home pay and 42.7% 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 4.5% of gross pay for Sheet Metal Workers in Westchester 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
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $40,885 a year in Westchester County, NY. Subtract that from $58,915 of take-home pay and $18,030 remains, which is $1,503 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 23.5% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Westchester County, NY
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Westchester 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 Westchester County, NY, set beside the New York and national medians.
Property taxes in Westchester County, NY
Homeowners in Westchester County, NY pay a median of $10,001 a year in real estate taxes, 52% above the New York median of $6,582 and 221% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $663,200, the median tax bill is 1.51% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Sheet Metal Workers median of $76,730, a tax bill of that size would equal 13.0% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Westchester County, NY
Renters in Westchester County, NY pay a median gross rent of $1,951 a month in the Census survey, 20% 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 $663,200, 56% above the New York median of $423,800. Median household income is $118,976, 38% above the New York median of $85,974, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 27.5% of that income.
Commuting in Westchester County, NY
Workers in Westchester County, NY who travel to a workplace spend an average of 34.6 minutes each way, 6% above the New York average of 32.6. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.8 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 19.1% of workers in Westchester County, NY work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Sheet Metal Workers afford to live in Westchester 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 $76,730 that ceiling is $1,918 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $2,729 is $811 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 Sheet Metal Workers is $36.89, which is 30% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $28.32 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 22.2 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 $32,952.
How fast you can save
At $1,503 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 7 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 14 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Sheet Metal Workers pay in Westchester County, NY
How much do Sheet Metal Workers make per hour in Westchester County, NY?
The median is $36.89 per hour, based on $76,730 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $20.00 at the 10th percentile to $62.34 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Sheet Metal Workers take home after taxes in Westchester County, NY?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $76,730 becomes $58,915 a year. That is $4,910 a month, $2,266 every two weeks or $1,133 a week.
How much tax do Sheet Metal Workers pay in Westchester County, NY?
Total taxes are $17,815 a year, an effective rate of 23.2%: $8,330 federal income tax, $5,870 FICA and $3,615 New York income tax.
Do Sheet Metal Workers earn more in Westchester County, NY than elsewhere in New York?
Yes. The local median of $76,730 is +3.7% versus the New York average of $73,977, a difference of $2,753 a year.
Can Sheet Metal Workers afford a one-bedroom apartment in Westchester County, NY?
A one-bedroom costs $2,729 a month against take-home pay of $4,910, which is 55.6% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,918 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Sheet Metal Workers in Westchester County, NY?
About $1,503 a month ($18,030 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $40,885 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Westchester 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 Sheet Metal Workers is $36.89.
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.