Occupation / job
Tool and Die Makers
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
The $64,050 midpoint sits $6.74 an hour above the $50,020 typical American job. That is a 28% premium, and premiums are rationed: whatever rations this one is the thing standing between you and Tool and Die Makers.
56,930 people are employed in this work. Big enough for a real market in every major metro, small enough that experience in Tool and Die Makers is still a distinguishing thing to have.
These roles suit people who want a trade where the work is measurable to the thousandth and nobody can argue with the gauge.
No verified preparation time is on file for Tool and Die Makers. 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
From $51,490 to $78,770 is $2,273 a month, or 1.5x bottom quarter to top. An ordinary spread like this is mostly years and geography; assume you enter near the bottom of it and that closing the gap takes a career rather than a move.
The bottom quarter of Tool and Die Makers still clears $51,490 — $1,470 above the $50,020 typical job. A high floor is the most valuable and least advertised property an occupation can have.
Avoid it if the noise, the fume exposure and the standing are not acceptable long-run terms.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 56,930 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
A 1.5x ratio is the most common shape in this data: some room to move, none of it quick. Read $64,050 as where you might be after years in Tool and Die Makers, and $51,490 as where you would start.
Put in money rather than ratios: $51,490 at the 25th percentile, $64,050 at the midpoint, $78,770 at the 75th. $27,280 separates the quarter of Tool and Die Makers at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Between $51,490 and $78,770 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $64,050. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $14,720; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $27,280.
The climb from $64,050 to $78,770 is $14,720; the drop to $51,490 is $12,560. A little more room above the midpoint than below it is the normal shape for Tool and Die Makers and for most paid work, and it is the reason the median is the honest summary rather than the average.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $30.79 at the midpoint for Tool and Die Makers, $24.75 at the 25th percentile and $37.87 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 Tool and Die Makers for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $64,050 describes them.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $64,050 because we have no verified record of unpaid hours or out-of-pocket costs for this work, and we would rather convert honestly than adjust invented ones.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else