Occupation / job
Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers
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
Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers pays $65,380 at the midpoint, 31% 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 34,020 employed as Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers, most metros have a working market: several employers, visible turnover, and the ability to change jobs without moving house.
Assembly and fabrication suit people who are consistent over long runs and who value predictable hours, a fixed site and a defined task set.
No verified preparation time is on file for Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
A quarter of Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers earn under $58,600 and a quarter over $83,410 — 1.4x, or $24,810 apart. Narrow spreads usually mean a pay schedule, which is stability bought at the price of upside.
At $58,600, or $28.17 an hour, the 25th percentile sits $8,580 above the $50,020 the typical American job pays. Occupations with floors this high almost always have a requirement holding them there.
Avoid it if you need a role that is not directly exposed to automation and offshoring.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 34,020 figure counts people already working as Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers, 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
The quarters are $58,600 and $83,410, a ratio of 1.4x. In a distribution this narrow, the biggest single lever on your pay in Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers is the cost of living where you do it.
The middle half of this field earns between $58,600 and $83,410. That is $24,810 of range, with $65,380 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Getting to $83,410, the 75th percentile, is worth $18,030 a year more than the $65,380 midpoint and $24,810 more than the $58,600 a quarter of Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers settle for.
The top quarter of Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers begins $18,030 above the $65,380 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $6,780 below it. A range stretched that far in one direction is the signature of a field where a small group earns a great deal more than the middle does.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers is $31.43 an hour. The quarters sit at $28.17 and $40.10, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
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 Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $65,380 describes them.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers, the hourly figure is $65,380 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else