Occupation / job
Lighting Technicians
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
A midpoint of $68,060 against $50,020 means Lighting Technicians pays $1,503 a month more than the typical American job. At that distance the entry requirement is the real subject, because it is what the premium is buying.
8,900 people work as Lighting Technicians. That is enough for a functioning national market and not enough for a functioning local one — in most metros this is a few employers rather than a field you can move around inside.
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.
We carry no verified training length for Lighting Technicians — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
$42,870 separates the bottom quarter of Lighting Technicians at $52,770 from the top quarter at $95,640. At a 1.8x ratio the midpoint is a weak guide to your own first year — find out which end you would be entering at.
The bottom quarter of Lighting Technicians still clears $52,770 — $2,750 above the $50,020 typical job. A high floor is the most valuable and least advertised property an occupation can have.
Avoid it if unsociable hours would not work — the production schedule is not yours to set.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 8,900 people employed as Lighting Technicians; 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
At 1.8x, the distribution for Lighting Technicians is open enough that specialisation starts to pay. The distance from $52,770 to $95,640 is mostly what you can do that others in the same title cannot.
The middle half of this field earns between $52,770 and $95,640. That is $42,870 of range, with $68,060 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Between $52,770 and $95,640 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $68,060. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $27,580; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $42,870.
The distance from the midpoint up to $95,640 is $27,580 — well over the $15,290 down to $52,770. Distributions leaning this way mean the median understates what the upper half of Lighting Technicians earns, and half the field is in that upper half.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Lighting Technicians is $32.72 an hour. The quarters sit at $25.37 and $45.98, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
This is payroll data: it comes from employers, about people they employ. Anyone doing the work of Lighting Technicians for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $68,060 describes them.
The hourly number on this page is $68,060 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Lighting Technicians, 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