Occupation / job
Models
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 $48,470 median against $50,020 across all occupations puts Models within $129 a month of the exact middle of the American labour market. Nothing in the headline number argues either way.
With 3,780 employed nationally, Models is a small occupation. Small occupations are quiet: few postings, slow turnover, and a real chance that the person you would replace is not going anywhere.
These sales roles suit people genuinely comfortable with rejection as a statistical input rather than a verdict, and who want pay tied to output more than to hours.
We carry no verified training length for Models — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
From under $35,710 to over $99,320 — $63,610 between the quarters, a 2.8x ratio. A range that wide is not one job with variation in it; it is a label covering several different jobs, and the entry-level version is the one you should cost.
A quarter of the field earns under $35,710 — $14,310 below the $50,020 the typical American job pays. That is the number to plan on for a first year, not the midpoint.
Avoid it if you cannot fund the months before the pipeline produces anything.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 3,780 figure counts people already working as Models, 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
2.8x is a very wide spread. In occupations shaped like this the useful question is not what Models pays but what the well-paid version of it is, because $99,320 and $35,710 are reached by different routes.
Put in money rather than ratios: $35,710 at the 25th percentile, $48,470 at the midpoint, $99,320 at the 75th. $63,610 separates the quarter of Models at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $35,710 and $99,320 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $48,470. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $50,850; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $63,610.
The top quarter of Models begins $50,850 above the $48,470 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $12,760 below it. A range stretched that far in one direction is the signature of a field where a small group earns a great deal more than the middle does.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $23.30 at the midpoint for Models, $17.16 at the 25th percentile and $47.75 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
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 Models for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $48,470 describes them.
The hourly number on this page is $48,470 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Models, 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