Occupation / job
Ophthalmic Laboratory 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 median of $39,460 against the $50,020 all-occupation figure leaves Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians 21% behind — $10,560 across a year. Whether that is workable depends almost entirely on where you would be doing it.
Nationally 18,660 people do this. That is a real occupation with a thin local presence — enough that Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians is a career, not enough that you can assume a second employer down the road.
This work suits people who can hold quality steady through repetition, which is a real skill and one that machines have not entirely taken.
We carry no verified training length for Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
A quarter of Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians earn under $36,470 and a quarter over $47,010: 1.3x, and $10,540 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 25th percentile is $36,470 — $17.53 an hour, and $13,550 below the $50,020 typical American job. Entry-level in this field means that number, not the midpoint, so budget against it.
Avoid it if repetitive work over years would grind you down, which for many people it does.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 18,660 figure counts people already working as Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians, 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
A 1.3x spread means the top quarter of Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians is not doing a different job from the bottom quarter, just a slightly better-paid version of the same one. Between $36,470 and $47,010 is the whole of the negotiation.
The middle half of this field earns between $36,470 and $47,010. That is $10,540 of range, with $39,460 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
The 75th percentile is $47,010. Reaching it from the $39,460 midpoint is $7,550 a year; reaching it from the $36,470 that the bottom quarter of Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians earn is $10,540.
The upper half of the middle range — $39,460 to $47,010, or $7,550 — is far longer than the lower half at $2,990. In a shape like this an average would flatter Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians considerably, and would describe nobody.
Converted to an hourly rate over a full-time year: $17.53 at the bottom quarter, $18.97 at the midpoint, $22.60 at the top quarter. The typical American job works out at $24.04 on the same basis.
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 Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $39,460 describes them.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians, the hourly figure is $39,460 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