Occupation / job
Parking Attendants
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
At a $35,150 midpoint, Parking Attendants sits 30% under the $50,020 national figure. The shortfall is $1,239 a month, which is roughly the size of a rent difference between metros — worth checking before the job is the thing you blame.
With 137,880 in the occupation, Parking Attendants is a big field with a visible internal market. Big fields reward moving: the pay you can negotiate on arrival usually beats what the annual review will give you for staying.
These roles suit people who want outdoor work around traffic with a clear procedure, and who can stay alert in a setting where attention is the safety control.
We carry no verified training length for Parking Attendants — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
A quarter of Parking Attendants earn under $29,960 and a quarter over $37,670: 1.3x, and $7,710 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 $29,960, $20,060 short of the $50,020 typical American job. The question worth answering before entering Parking Attendants is how long people spend in that quarter, because the median says nothing about it.
Avoid it if standing outdoors in all weather beside moving traffic is not acceptable to you.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 137,880 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
At 1.3x between $29,960 and $37,670, this is a narrow distribution. $35,150 is a reliable number to plan around, which is worth something — but so is knowing that outperforming the field will not be paid for.
In cash terms the middle half of Parking Attendants runs $29,960 to $37,670 — $7,710 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $35,150.
Getting to $37,670, the 75th percentile, is worth $2,520 a year more than the $35,150 midpoint and $7,710 more than the $29,960 a quarter of Parking Attendants settle for.
Getting from $29,960 to the $35,150 midpoint is $5,190; getting from there to $37,670 is only $2,520. The hard part of the range is the lower half, which is also the half a newcomer starts in.
Converted to an hourly rate over a full-time year: $14.40 at the bottom quarter, $16.89 at the midpoint, $18.11 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
The $35,150 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
The hourly number on this page is $35,150 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Parking Attendants, 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