Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists Salary and Pay

The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)

A percentile marks a point in this occupation's pay distribution: the worker one quarter of the way up the Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists ladder earns the 25th percentile wage, $29,060. BLS top-codes very high wages ($239,200+ a year, $115.00+ an hour) and marks estimates it cannot publish as n/p.

Employment and concentration

May 2024 employment stood at 295,460, or 0.19% of the U.S. total. Florida leads the state table with 23,220 jobs; the top three states sum to 22.7% of the occupation. The concentration measure tells the more interesting story: New Jersey posts a location quotient of 1.86, so a worker there is far more likely to meet a colleague in this field than the national pattern suggests.

The spread matters as much as the center. Earners at the 90th percentile make $70,220, which is 2.9 times the $24,580 at the 10th, a difference of $45,640 annually. Because the mean wage ($43,460) sits above the median ($35,250), a typical offer should be judged against the median and the 25th to 75th percentile band, not the mean.

Pay by state

The state spread for Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists runs from the $58,920 median in Washington down through every other publishing state. Employment concentrates in Florida (23,220 jobs). The complete table:

The occupation in context

Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists stands number 123 by employment and number 786 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Personal Care and Service Occupations, the group median wage is $37,320 across 32 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 6% less than its group median, and it supplies 9.4% of the group's 3,159,920 jobs. In 23 of the 51 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $35,250, which is the single best quick test of whether this occupation's pay is set nationally or locally: a high count means local markets regularly outbid the national figure.

Metropolitan areas: where the jobs and the pay sit

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ is the largest metro employer with 26,620 jobs, 9.0% of the national total. Below, the biggest employers come first; the pay table after it only counts metros with 500 or more jobs in the occupation, so its leader is a real market and not a statistical artifact.

Largest metro employers

Highest-paying metros (500+ jobs)

At the other end, San Juan-Bayamon-Caguas, PR posts the lowest mean pay among metros with at least 500 jobs, $25,920 a year, against $69,790 in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA. Anyone relocating for this work should price the destination metro's table row, not the national median, before signing anything.

What the median pay looks like as a budget

Budget arithmetic on the median: $2,938 a month before tax, $1,356 biweekly, $678 weekly. Moving from the 25th percentile ($29,060) to the 75th ($48,300) is worth $19,240 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. To turn any of these gross figures into spendable money, run them through the paycheck calculator; to weigh an offer against your current role, use the salary calculator; to test a raise against prices, the raise vs inflation calculator.

To place a real offer: a salary of $38,775 would sit between the median ($35,250) and the 75th percentile ($48,300), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $29,060, is $6,190 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.

Related occupations in Personal Care and Service Occupations

Compare the ladder above with the closest relatives in the survey: Animal Caretakers, Manicurists and Pedicurists, Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers, First-Line Supervisors of Personal Service Workers, First-Line Supervisors of Entertainment and Recreation Workers, Except Gambling Services, Gambling Dealers. The Careers hub carries the whole branch, group by group.