Occupation / job
Conveyor Operators and Tenders
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
The $42,420 midpoint for Conveyor Operators and Tenders sits $7,600 under the $50,020 the typical American job pays. That is a real living across much of the country and a thin one in expensive metros, so geography decides this more than seniority does.
At 22,930 employed, this is a mid-sized occupation. In a normal city that means several possible employers and a genuine market rate, which is the point at which knowing the numbers on this page starts to be worth money.
These roles suit people who prefer to be busy physically rather than sat still, and who value being able to find the same job in any city.
We carry no verified training length for Conveyor Operators and Tenders — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
The quarters sit at $38,180 and $48,530, $862 a month apart at a ratio of 1.3x. Narrow enough that what you can expect is close to what everyone else gets.
A quarter of the field earns under $38,180 — $11,840 below the $50,020 the typical American job pays. That is the number to plan on for a first year, not the midpoint.
Avoid it if you need pay that rises with time served; in much of this category it does not.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 22,930 people employed as Conveyor Operators and Tenders; 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 1.3x spread means the top quarter of Conveyor Operators and Tenders is not doing a different job from the bottom quarter, just a slightly better-paid version of the same one. Between $38,180 and $48,530 is the whole of the negotiation.
Put in money rather than ratios: $38,180 at the 25th percentile, $42,420 at the midpoint, $48,530 at the 75th. $10,350 separates the quarter of Conveyor Operators and Tenders at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $38,180 and $48,530 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $42,420. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $6,110; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $10,350.
$6,110 separates $42,420 from the $48,530 top quarter, while only $4,240 separates it from $38,180. The range leans upward, which means the middle of Conveyor Operators and Tenders has more room above it than a symmetric reading of the median would suggest.
Converted to an hourly rate over a full-time year: $18.35 at the bottom quarter, $20.39 at the midpoint, $23.33 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
Employers reported these wages for people already working as Conveyor Operators and Tenders. The self-employed are excluded, so $42,420 does not describe an independent doing the same work.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Conveyor Operators and Tenders, the hourly figure is $42,420 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