Occupation / job
Manicurists and Pedicurists
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
Manicurists and Pedicurists pays $35,760 where the typical American job pays $50,020 — $14,260 a year short, or $6.85 an hour. That is a liveable wage in a cheap state and a difficult one in an expensive city, and nothing about the national figure tells you which you would be in.
National employment is 152,770. At that scale hiring is continuous, the market rate is well established, and your leverage comes from being credibly willing to go somewhere else.
Personal appearance work suits people who build a book of regular clients and keep them for years — the skill gets you hired once, the relationship is what pays.
We carry no verified training length for Manicurists and Pedicurists — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
A quarter of Manicurists and Pedicurists earn under $34,010 and a quarter over $41,650: 1.2x, and $7,640 between the ends. That is a narrow band — enough room to be paid better than average, not enough for the occupation to be a route to a materially different income.
The bottom quarter is under $34,010, $16,010 short of the $50,020 typical American job. The question worth answering before entering Manicurists and Pedicurists is how long people spend in that quarter, because the median says nothing about it.
Avoid it if you cannot stand all day, or if you would not enjoy the client-building side, which is most of the income.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 152,770 is a headcount of the employed, which is a numerator without a denominator — everyone who qualified and never got hired is missing from it, and we will not estimate them to complete a percentage.
What the spread tells you
A 1.2x ratio from $34,010 to $41,650 makes $35,760 a dependable planning number. Dependable is the whole offer here — there is not much room above it.
In cash terms the middle half of Manicurists and Pedicurists runs $34,010 to $41,650 — $7,640 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $35,760.
Getting to $41,650, the 75th percentile, is worth $5,890 a year more than the $35,760 midpoint and $7,640 more than the $34,010 a quarter of Manicurists and Pedicurists settle for.
$1,750 below the midpoint, $5,890 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of Manicurists and Pedicurists that is not a median — including any average you see quoted elsewhere — is describing the top of the range rather than the middle.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Manicurists and Pedicurists is $17.19 an hour. The quarters sit at $16.35 and $20.02, 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 Manicurists and Pedicurists for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $35,760 describes them.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Manicurists and Pedicurists, the hourly figure is $35,760 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