Occupation / job
Pourers and Casters, Metal
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
$51,810 against a $50,020 all-occupation midpoint — $1,790 apart. Pourers and Casters, Metal pays what the average job pays, so the decision has to be made on the work, the entry cost and the spread rather than on the wage.
Employment as Pourers and Casters, Metal stands at 4,560. That is small enough that your local market may have a dozen posts in total; mobility will matter more to your earnings than seniority does.
This work suits people who like setting a machine up properly and then producing consistently, which is a different skill from making one good part.
No verified preparation time is on file for Pourers and Casters, Metal. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
The middle half runs $45,190 to $61,700 — $1,375 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.
The bottom quarter of Pourers and Casters, Metal earns under $45,190, which is within $4,830 of the $50,020 typical American job. An occupation whose 25th percentile is level with the national middle has an unusually forgiving downside.
Avoid it if you could not move should the plant go, because these jobs are concentrated where the plants are.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 4,560 figure counts people already working as Pourers and Casters, Metal, 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
$45,190 to $61,700 is a 1.4x range. Ranges this tight usually mean the employer set is homogeneous — the same kind of organisation paying the same kind of scale — so the lever you have is geography rather than employer.
In cash terms the middle half of Pourers and Casters, Metal runs $45,190 to $61,700 — $16,510 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $51,810.
The 75th percentile is $61,700. Reaching it from the $51,810 midpoint is $9,890 a year; reaching it from the $45,190 that the bottom quarter of Pourers and Casters, Metal earn is $16,510.
The climb from $51,810 to $61,700 is $9,890, against $6,620 down to $45,190. Rather more of the range sits above the midpoint than below it, so the realistic upside in Pourers and Casters, Metal is larger than the realistic downside.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Pourers and Casters, Metal is $24.90 an hour. The quarters sit at $21.72 and $29.66, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $51,810 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 $51,810 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Pourers and Casters, Metal, 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