SalariesProduction: pay for 105 occupations, May 2025
The field Production had 8,565,760 jobs in the United States in May 2025, with a median pay of $46,990 a year ($22.59 an hour) across all its occupations.
No occupation in this field matches.
In short
- Highest median pay in this field: Nuclear Power Reactor Operators, $122,890 a year.
- Lowest: Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers, $34,890 a year.
- Most jobs: Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators (1,405,030), First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers (673,430) and Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers (597,370).
- For comparison, the median for all occupations in the country was $50,980 a year.
Sorted by median pay, highest first. "Not published" in the yearly or hourly column means BLS releases only the other one for that occupation.
The field as a whole
Production holds 8,565,760 of the 155,495,730 jobs in the national figures, about 6 in every 100. Its median pay of $46,990 a year is 8% below the median for all occupations ($50,980), which places it number 15 of the 22 fields. Across the whole field, the lowest-paid tenth earned less than $34,240 and the highest-paid tenth more than $76,990; the middle half earned between $38,130 and $59,920. The average was $51,600, 10% above the median.
Inside the field
Inside the field, the best-paid occupation with a published yearly median earns 3.5 times the lowest ($122,890 against $34,890). 31 of the 105 occupations with a yearly median are above the national median of $50,980, and 74 are below it. The occupation in the middle of the field's list is Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic, at $47,180. Jobs are unevenly spread: the three largest occupations hold 31% of the field's jobs, while the smallest, Patternmakers, Wood, has 220. Pay stretches furthest within Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers, where the highest-paid tenth earn over $123,540 and the lowest-paid tenth under $33,790.
Reading the field
Pay also moves with place. For the field's largest occupation, Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators, the state medians run from $24,610 in Puerto Rico to $50,330 in District of Columbia; its own page has every state. The Bureau of Labor Statistics sorts every occupation into one field by the work done, not by the industry of the employer, so an accountant at a hospital is counted under business and financial operations, not health care.
Questions about this field
What is the highest-paying job in production?
By published median pay in May 2025: Nuclear Power Reactor Operators, at $122,890 a year.
Which production occupation has the most jobs?
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators, with 1,405,030 jobs in the United States.
What is the median pay for production occupations?
$46,990 a year across the whole field, against $50,980 for all occupations.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Checked in November 2026. Figures are for employees, before tax, and leave out overtime pay and benefits. They are official statistics, not advice or a pay offer; see bls.gov/oes for the original tables.