Occupation / job
Cutters and Trimmers, Hand
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
At a $38,020 midpoint, Cutters and Trimmers, Hand sits 24% under the $50,020 national figure. The shortfall is $1,000 a month, which is roughly the size of a rent difference between metros — worth checking before the job is the thing you blame.
With 6,060 employed nationally, Cutters and Trimmers, Hand 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.
These roles suit people who want a fixed site, a known task and a shift that ends, and who would rather be reliable than promoted.
We carry no verified training length for Cutters and Trimmers, Hand — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
Between $34,050 and $47,850 there is $13,800, a ratio of 1.4x. Tight distributions are predictable, and predictable cuts both ways: little risk of being badly underpaid, little prospect of doing much better.
The bottom quarter is under $34,050, $15,970 short of the $50,020 typical American job. The question worth answering before entering Cutters and Trimmers, Hand is how long people spend in that quarter, because the median says nothing about it.
Avoid it if repetitive work over years would grind you down, which for many people it does.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 6,060 people employed as Cutters and Trimmers, Hand; 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
Top quarter to bottom quarter is 1.4x. In a band that narrow, $38,020 is a genuinely representative number for Cutters and Trimmers, Hand and the main variable left is where you live.
Put in money rather than ratios: $34,050 at the 25th percentile, $38,020 at the midpoint, $47,850 at the 75th. $13,800 separates the quarter of Cutters and Trimmers, Hand at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $34,050 and $47,850 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $38,020. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $9,830; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $13,800.
From $38,020 the drop to $34,050 is $3,970 and the climb to $47,850 is $9,830. When the upper half of the range is that much longer, the average is pulled well above the median — which is exactly why this site publishes the median.
Converted to an hourly rate over a full-time year: $16.37 at the bottom quarter, $18.27 at the midpoint, $23.00 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 $38,020 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 $38,020 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