Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance Salary and Pay
How much do Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance make?
Median pay for Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance is $50,280 a year ($24.17); the mean is $75,410. The occupation employed 3,320 people in May 2024, and its middle band runs from $28,850 to $132,530.
Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance salary data without the self-reported noise: BLS surveyed the employers, and this page prints the ladder, the states, and the metros exactly as the survey published them.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Hourly figures use the BLS full-time convention of 2,080 hours a year. The converter loads this occupation's own ladder, median $50,280 first; type any offer into the custom box to price it against the same year.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $22,010 | $10.58 |
| 25th percentile | $28,850 | $13.87 |
| Median (50th) | $50,280 | $24.17 |
| 75th percentile | $132,530 | $63.72 |
| 90th percentile | $157,090 | $75.52 |
The five rows are five different workers in the same occupation, from the 10th percentile ($22,010) to the 90th ($157,090). BLS suppresses cells that fail its reliability rules (n/p here) and caps the highest wages at $239,200+ a year or $115.00+ an hour; in this ladder that top code appears at the very top rows only.
Employment and concentration
With 3,320 jobs nationally, Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance make up 0.00% of U.S. employment as BLS measured it in May 2024. The map is uneven: Florida alone holds 380 of those jobs, the top three states hold 23.2%, and the deepest concentration sits in District of Columbia (location quotient 4.92, where 1.00 is the national average). A quotient above 2 usually signals a local industry cluster rather than evenly spread demand.
Pay inside the occupation is wide: $135,080 separates the ends of its ladder. The 90th percentile ($157,090) is 7.1 times the 10th percentile ($22,010), a gap of $135,080 a year. The mean of $75,410 sitting above the median of $50,280 tells you the top end pulls the average up: most workers cluster below the mean, and the high tail is thin.
Pay by state
Sorted by employment, the table below puts Florida first at 380 jobs; sorted by median pay instead, California would lead at $132,890. Both orderings are printed in one table:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 380 | 0.0 | 1.78 | $55,600 | $43,020 |
| New York | 310 | 0.0 | 1.49 | $123,650 | $100,410 |
| District of Columbia | 80 | 0.1 | 4.92 | $90,030 | $91,290 |
| Georgia | 80 | 0.0 | 0.75 | $163,770 | $132,610 |
| Pennsylvania | 50 | 0.0 | 0.36 | n/p | n/p |
| Tennessee | 30 | 0.0 | 0.43 | $89,300 | $58,560 |
| California | n/p | n/p | n/p | $119,410 | $132,890 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance stands number 779 by employment and number 516 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 35% more than its group median, and it supplies 0.1% of the group's 3,159,920 jobs. In 5 of the 6 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $50,280, 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 290 jobs, 8.7% of the national total. Two rankings follow across the 6 metros BLS publishes for this occupation: where the jobs are, then where the money is, with the pay ranking restricted to metros employing at least 500 people in this occupation to keep small samples out of the lead.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 290 | $121,610 | $99,650 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 250 | $44,950 | $43,020 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 90 | $81,950 | $91,290 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 50 | $80,000 | $61,270 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 40 | $159,620 | $133,050 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | n/p | $120,590 | $132,900 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
The median Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance paycheck, gross, is $1,934 every two weeks on an annual $50,280, which is $4,190 a month and $967 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($28,850) to the 75th ($132,530) is worth $103,680 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. Gross is a starting point, not a budget: the paycheck calculator nets it down by state, an offer comparison lives in the salary calculator, and the raise vs inflation calculator separates a real raise from a nominal one.
To place a real offer: a salary of $55,308 would sit between the median ($50,280) and the 75th percentile ($132,530), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $28,850, is $21,430 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
The occupations BLS groups with this one, by size: 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, Residential Advisors, Skincare Specialists. Every one of the 826 published occupations is indexed on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance make an hour?
The median hourly wage is $24.17, and the mean hourly wage is $36.25, from the May 2024 OEWS estimates. Annual figures for Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance use the survey's 2,080-hour year where a conversion is needed, which is how the $50,280 annual median and the hourly figures reconcile.
Which state pays Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance the most?
California, with a median annual wage of $132,890 across n/p jobs. The full state table on this page ranks every publishing state by employment and shows median and mean side by side.
How big is the Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance workforce?
3,320 wage and salary workers in May 2024, 0.00% of U.S. employment in the survey. Employment concentrates most in District of Columbia by location quotient (4.92).
How current is this Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance salary data?
These are the May 2024 OEWS estimates behind the $50,280 median and the 3,320 job count on this page, released by BLS on April 2, 2025 and downloaded on November 5, 2026. OEWS is an employer survey, so those figures describe wages actually paid in this occupation, not advertised ranges.