Occupation / job
Film and Video Editors
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
Film and Video Editors pays $75,420 at the midpoint, 51% above the $50,020 national figure. Premiums that size are rationed by something; find out what before the salary does your thinking for you.
At 25,610 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 want a technical craft attached to a creative industry, and who are content that the credit for the result goes elsewhere.
How long it takes to become one of the 25,610 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
At 2.0x, from $52,720 to $105,310, the two halves of Film and Video Editors are not really doing the same job. $4,382 a month separates them, and something other than the title explains it.
The 25th percentile is $52,720, $2,700 above the $50,020 typical American job. A floor above the national midpoint is rare, and it is worth more than an equivalent amount of upside.
Avoid it if unsociable hours would not work — the production schedule is not yours to set.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 25,610 figure counts people already working as Film and Video Editors, 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
From $52,720 to $105,310 at 2.0x: something inside this occupation sorts people a long way apart. Identifying what it is — sector, employer, credential — is worth more than any general advice about Film and Video Editors.
In cash terms the middle half of Film and Video Editors runs $52,720 to $105,310 — $52,590 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $75,420.
Between $52,720 and $105,310 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $75,420. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $29,890; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $52,590.
The climb from $75,420 to $105,310 is $29,890; the drop to $52,720 is $22,700. A little more room above the midpoint than below it is the normal shape for Film and Video Editors and for most paid work, and it is the reason the median is the honest summary rather than the average.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Film and Video Editors is $36.25 an hour. The quarters sit at $25.34 and $50.62, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $75,420 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.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Film and Video Editors, the hourly figure is $75,420 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