Occupation / job
Engine and Other Machine Assemblers
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
Engine and Other Machine Assemblers pays $53,710, a little over the $50,020 all-occupation midpoint — $3,690 a year clear, or $1.77 an hour. A margin that size is worth having but is not on its own a reason to take on an entry requirement.
With 34,000 employed as Engine and Other Machine Assemblers, most metros have a working market: several employers, visible turnover, and the ability to change jobs without moving house.
Assembly and fabrication suit people who are consistent over long runs and who value predictable hours, a fixed site and a defined task set.
No verified preparation time is on file for Engine and Other Machine Assemblers. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
$45,230 to $74,920 — 1.7x, or $2,474 a month between the quarters. An unremarkable spread, which means the useful planning number for Engine and Other Machine Assemblers is the bottom of it rather than the middle.
At $45,230 — $21.74 an hour — the 25th percentile of this field sits essentially at the $50,020 all-occupation midpoint. Being in the bottom quarter of Engine and Other Machine Assemblers still means being paid like the average American worker.
Avoid it if you need variety in the task, or would be unable to move should the plant close.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 34,000 figure counts people already working as Engine and Other Machine Assemblers, not everyone who trained and never got hired. Without a licensing register to divide by, a rate here would be an invented denominator.
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 $53,710 as where you might be after years in Engine and Other Machine Assemblers, and $45,230 as where you would start.
Put in money rather than ratios: $45,230 at the 25th percentile, $53,710 at the midpoint, $74,920 at the 75th. $29,690 separates the quarter of Engine and Other Machine Assemblers at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $45,230 and $74,920 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $53,710. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $21,210; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $29,690.
From $53,710 the drop to $45,230 is $8,480 and the climb to $74,920 is $21,210. 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: $21.74 at the bottom quarter, $25.82 at the midpoint, $36.01 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 Engine and Other Machine Assemblers. The self-employed are excluded, so $53,710 does not describe an independent doing the same work.
The hourly number on this page is $53,710 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Engine and Other Machine Assemblers, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else