Occupation / job
Machinists
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 $58,750 midpoint sits $4.19 an hour above the $50,020 typical American job. That is a 17% premium, and premiums are rationed: whatever rations this one is the thing standing between you and Machinists.
287,050 people do this work. An occupation this large has a published, well-known going rate — which means less scope to be underpaid and less scope to negotiate above it.
Metal and plastic work suits people who want a measurable craft — the tolerance is either held or it is not — and who like being judged on something objective.
How long it takes to become one of the 287,050 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
The middle half runs $47,570 to $67,700 — $1,677 a month between the quarters, a 1.4x ratio. Spreads this narrow are usually set by a grade or a scale, so the negotiation you are imagining probably is not available.
At $47,570 — $22.87 an hour — the 25th percentile of this field sits essentially at the $50,020 all-occupation midpoint. Being in the bottom quarter of Machinists still means being paid like the average American worker.
Avoid it if the noise, the fume exposure and the standing are not acceptable long-run terms.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 287,050 people employed as Machinists; 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, $58,750 is a genuinely representative number for Machinists and the main variable left is where you live.
In cash terms the middle half of Machinists runs $47,570 to $67,700 — $20,130 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $58,750.
Between $47,570 and $67,700 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $58,750. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $8,950; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $20,130.
The fall from $58,750 to the $47,570 bottom quarter is $11,180; the climb to the $67,700 top quarter is $8,950. Slightly more of the range lies below the midpoint than above it, so the downside is the bigger movement here.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Machinists is $28.24 an hour. The quarters sit at $22.87 and $32.54, 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 Machinists for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $58,750 describes them.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Machinists, the hourly figure is $58,750 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