Occupation / job
Rock Splitters, Quarry
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
Rock Splitters, Quarry pays $48,740, effectively level with the $50,020 all-occupation midpoint — $1,280 apart, which is inside the noise of a single year’s survey. Treat this as an average-paying occupation and decide it on everything else.
With 3,320 employed nationally, Rock Splitters, Quarry 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.
Extraction work suits people who will go where the deposit is, work a rotation away from home, and treat the safety regime as the actual condition of employment.
No verified preparation time is on file for Rock Splitters, Quarry. 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 $42,670 to $60,030 — $1,446 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 25th percentile of $42,670 is only $7,350 off the $50,020 national midpoint. Being in the worst-paid quarter of Rock Splitters, Quarry still means being paid close to what the average American job pays.
Avoid it if you cannot relocate to where the deposit is, or if a downturn in the commodity cycle would leave you stranded.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 3,320 people employed as Rock Splitters, Quarry; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
Top quarter to bottom quarter is 1.4x. In a band that narrow, $48,740 is a genuinely representative number for Rock Splitters, Quarry and the main variable left is where you live.
In cash terms the middle half of Rock Splitters, Quarry runs $42,670 to $60,030 — $17,360 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $48,740.
The 75th percentile is $60,030. Reaching it from the $48,740 midpoint is $11,290 a year; reaching it from the $42,670 that the bottom quarter of Rock Splitters, Quarry earn is $17,360.
The distance from the midpoint up to $60,030 is $11,290 — well over the $6,070 down to $42,670. Distributions leaning this way mean the median understates what the upper half of Rock Splitters, Quarry earns, and half the field is in that upper half.
Converted to an hourly rate over a full-time year: $20.51 at the bottom quarter, $23.43 at the midpoint, $28.86 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 Rock Splitters, Quarry for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $48,740 describes them.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Rock Splitters, Quarry, the hourly figure is $48,740 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