Occupation / job
Audio and Video Technicians
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
Audio and Video Technicians pays $58,100 against $50,020 across all occupations — $673 a month more. Every premium is paid for something: find out whether it is the schooling, the licence, the hours or the risk before you decide you want it.
70,230 people are employed in this work. Big enough for a real market in every major metro, small enough that experience in Audio and Video Technicians is still a distinguishing thing to have.
Media equipment work suits people who like being the reason a broadcast, a shoot or a show technically works, and who are fine with nobody noticing when it does.
We carry no verified training length for Audio and Video Technicians — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
A quarter earn below $46,390 and a quarter above $77,560: a 1.7x ratio, $31,170 between the ends. That is an ordinary working spread, which also means experience and location explain most of it and there is no shortcut through the middle.
The bottom quarter of Audio and Video Technicians earns under $46,390, which is within $3,630 of the $50,020 typical American job. An occupation whose 25th percentile is level with the national middle has an unusually forgiving downside.
Avoid it if evenings, weekends and load-outs at two in the morning would not fit around the rest of your life.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 70,230 people employed as Audio and Video Technicians; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
A 1.7x ratio is the most common shape in this data: some room to move, none of it quick. Read $58,100 as where you might be after years in Audio and Video Technicians, and $46,390 as where you would start.
The middle half of this field earns between $46,390 and $77,560. That is $31,170 of range, with $58,100 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Getting to $77,560, the 75th percentile, is worth $19,460 a year more than the $58,100 midpoint and $31,170 more than the $46,390 a quarter of Audio and Video Technicians settle for.
It is $11,710 from $58,100 down to $46,390 but $19,460 up to $77,560. When a range leans this far upward, the interesting question is what puts someone in the top half, because the money is disproportionately there.
Converted to an hourly rate over a full-time year: $22.30 at the bottom quarter, $27.93 at the midpoint, $37.28 at the top quarter. The typical American job works out at $24.04 on the same basis.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $58,100 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Audio and Video Technicians, the hourly figure is $58,100 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