Occupation / job
Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers
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 $58,930 midpoint sits $4.28 an hour above the $50,020 typical American job. That is a 18% premium, and premiums are rationed: whatever rations this one is the thing standing between you and Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers.
83,080 people are employed in this work. Big enough for a real market in every major metro, small enough that experience in Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers is still a distinguishing thing to have.
These trades suit people who want a skill that is portable, credentialed by doing rather than by studying, and demonstrably useful to somebody in every town.
How long it takes to become one of the 83,080 people doing this is not something we have a source for. BLS counts and pays them; it does not record how they got there, and we would rather say so than guess.
Who should not do this
A quarter earn below $47,440 and a quarter above $74,230: a 1.6x ratio, $26,790 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.
At $47,440 — $22.80 an hour — the 25th percentile of this field sits essentially at the $50,020 all-occupation midpoint. Being in the bottom quarter of Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers still means being paid like the average American worker.
Avoid it if the cumulative physical wear is not something you have thought about honestly at the age you would be finishing.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 83,080 people employed as Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers; 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 1.6x ratio is the most common shape in this data: some room to move, none of it quick. Read $58,930 as where you might be after years in Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers, and $47,440 as where you would start.
Put in money rather than ratios: $47,440 at the 25th percentile, $58,930 at the midpoint, $74,230 at the 75th. $26,790 separates the quarter of Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
The 75th percentile is $74,230. Reaching it from the $58,930 midpoint is $15,300 a year; reaching it from the $47,440 that the bottom quarter of Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers earn is $26,790.
From $58,930 it is $11,490 down to the bottom quarter and $15,300 up to the top. The upper half of the range is the longer one, which is the ordinary shape for work where experience compounds.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers is $28.33 an hour. The quarters sit at $22.80 and $35.68, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $58,930 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 $58,930 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