Occupation / job
Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants
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
Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants pays $35,670 where the typical American job pays $50,020 — $14,350 a year short, or $6.89 an hour. That is a liveable wage in a cheap state and a difficult one in an expensive city, and nothing about the national figure tells you which you would be in.
With 102,010 in the occupation, Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants is a big field with a visible internal market. Big fields reward moving: the pay you can negotiate on arrival usually beats what the annual review will give you for staying.
These roles suit people who want outdoor work around traffic with a clear procedure, and who can stay alert in a setting where attention is the safety control.
We carry no verified training length for Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
The quarters sit at $31,300 and $39,320, $668 a month apart at a ratio of 1.3x. Narrow enough that what you can expect is close to what everyone else gets.
The bottom quarter is under $31,300, $18,720 short of the $50,020 typical American job. The question worth answering before entering Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants is how long people spend in that quarter, because the median says nothing about it.
Avoid it if working beside live traffic in all weather is not a risk you want to take repeatedly.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 102,010 is a headcount of the employed, which is a numerator without a denominator — everyone who qualified and never got hired is missing from it, and we will not estimate them to complete a percentage.
What the spread tells you
A 1.3x ratio from $31,300 to $39,320 makes $35,670 a dependable planning number. Dependable is the whole offer here — there is not much room above it.
In cash terms the middle half of Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants runs $31,300 to $39,320 — $8,020 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $35,670.
Getting to $39,320, the 75th percentile, is worth $3,650 a year more than the $35,670 midpoint and $8,020 more than the $31,300 a quarter of Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants settle for.
There is $4,370 between $31,300 and $35,670, and $3,650 between $35,670 and $39,320. The lower half of the range is marginally the longer one — worth knowing if you would be entering Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants at the bottom of it.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants is $17.14 an hour. The quarters sit at $15.04 and $18.90, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $35,670 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.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $35,670 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