Occupation / job
Riggers
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 $62,640 midpoint puts Riggers $12,620 above the $50,020 typical American job — a 25% premium paid for the training, the licence or the conditions. It is not free money and it disappears the moment you stop meeting the requirement.
At 22,530 employed, this is a mid-sized occupation. In a normal city that means several possible employers and a genuine market rate, which is the point at which knowing the numbers on this page starts to be worth money.
These roles suit people who want to be the one who keeps things running, in work where competence is obvious to everyone around you within about a week.
We carry no verified training length for Riggers — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
A quarter earn below $48,210 and a quarter above $80,180: a 1.7x ratio, $31,970 between the ends. That is an ordinary working spread, which also means experience and location explain most of it and there is no shortcut through the middle.
At $48,210 — $23.17 an hour — the 25th percentile of this field sits essentially at the $50,020 all-occupation midpoint. Being in the bottom quarter of Riggers still means being paid like the average American worker.
Avoid it if you would find it demoralising to arrive only when something has already failed.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 22,530 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
1.7x between $48,210 and $80,180 is the ordinary shape of an occupation where experience and region both matter and neither dominates. $62,640 is a fair expectation by mid-career, not on day one.
The middle half of this field earns between $48,210 and $80,180. That is $31,970 of range, with $62,640 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Getting to $80,180, the 75th percentile, is worth $17,540 a year more than the $62,640 midpoint and $31,970 more than the $48,210 a quarter of Riggers settle for.
From $62,640 it is $14,430 down to the bottom quarter and $17,540 up to the top. The upper half of the range is the longer one, which is the ordinary shape for work where experience compounds.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $30.11 at the midpoint for Riggers, $23.17 at the 25th percentile and $38.54 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 Riggers for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $62,640 describes them.
The hourly number on this page is $62,640 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Riggers, 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