Occupation / job
Acupuncturists
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
Acupuncturists pays $76,040 at the midpoint, 52% above the $50,020 national figure. Premiums that size are rationed by something; find out what before the salary does your thinking for you.
With 7,830 employed nationally, Acupuncturists is a small occupation. Small occupations are quiet: few postings, slow turnover, and a real chance that the person you would replace is not going anywhere.
This work suits people prepared to spend years qualifying for a scope of practice they then hold for the rest of a career, with the accountability that comes attached to it.
We carry no verified training length for Acupuncturists — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
A quarter of the field earns under $55,380 and a quarter over $102,280: $46,900 between them, a ratio of 1.8x. Wide enough that the first offer you get tells you more about your prospects than the median does.
The bottom quarter of Acupuncturists still clears $55,380 — $5,360 above the $50,020 typical job. A high floor is the most valuable and least advertised property an occupation can have.
Avoid it if you cannot do nights, cannot carry medico-legal exposure, or need to be finished thinking about work when the shift ends.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 7,830 figure counts people already working as Acupuncturists, not everyone who trained and never got hired. Without a licensing register to divide by, a rate here would be an invented denominator.
What the spread tells you
A ratio of 1.8x — $55,380 to $102,280 — is wide enough that specialising inside Acupuncturists pays measurably. $76,040 is the middle of a range you can move within.
Put in money rather than ratios: $55,380 at the 25th percentile, $76,040 at the midpoint, $102,280 at the 75th. $46,900 separates the quarter of Acupuncturists at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $55,380 and $102,280 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $76,040. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $26,240; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $46,900.
From $76,040 it is $20,660 down to the bottom quarter and $26,240 up to the top. The upper half of the range is the longer one, which is the ordinary shape for work where experience compounds.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $36.55 at the midpoint for Acupuncturists, $26.62 at the 25th percentile and $49.17 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
What these figures are, and what they are not
This is payroll data: it comes from employers, about people they employ. Anyone doing the work of Acupuncturists for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $76,040 describes them.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $76,040 because we have no verified record of unpaid hours or out-of-pocket costs for this work, and we would rather convert honestly than adjust invented ones.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else