Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners Salary and Pay
How much do Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners make?
Median pay for Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners is $45,320 a year ($21.79); the mean is $49,020. The occupation employed 5,730 people in May 2024, and its middle band runs from $35,820 to $56,960.
What Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners actually pay, from the federal wage survey: a $45,320 median, the full percentile ladder, every state's table, and the metros where the jobs and the money sit, on one page.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Gross pay only, before taxes and benefits. The picker starts at this occupation's median ($45,320); the custom box accepts any annual figure, which is how you price an offer letter against the ladder below.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $30,130 | $14.49 |
| 25th percentile | $35,820 | $17.22 |
| Median (50th) | $45,320 | $21.79 |
| 75th percentile | $56,960 | $27.38 |
| 90th percentile | $73,430 | $35.30 |
The five rows are five different workers in the same occupation, from the 10th percentile ($30,130) to the 90th ($73,430). 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
May 2024 employment stood at 5,730, or 0.00% of the U.S. total. California leads the state table with 600 jobs; the top three states sum to 27.2% of the occupation. The concentration measure tells the more interesting story: Tennessee posts a location quotient of 2.88, 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 $73,430, which is 2.4 times the $30,130 at the 10th, a difference of $43,300 annually. Because the mean wage ($49,020) sits above the median ($45,320), a typical offer should be judged against the median and the 25th to 75th percentile band, not the mean.
Pay by state
Sorted by employment, the table below puts California first at 600 jobs; sorted by median pay instead, Nevada would lead at $66,460. Both orderings are printed in one table:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 600 | 0.0 | 0.90 | $47,650 | $45,410 |
| Texas | 550 | 0.0 | 1.07 | $52,260 | $48,080 |
| Illinois | 410 | 0.1 | 1.82 | $57,440 | $48,860 |
| Pennsylvania | 350 | 0.1 | 1.56 | $40,510 | $37,810 |
| Tennessee | 350 | 0.1 | 2.88 | $55,710 | $44,060 |
| Georgia | 260 | 0.1 | 1.46 | $34,510 | $25,420 |
| Indiana | 260 | 0.1 | 2.18 | $42,640 | $39,610 |
| New York | 260 | 0.0 | 0.73 | $56,390 | $46,680 |
| Michigan | 240 | 0.1 | 1.44 | $55,950 | $59,960 |
| Missouri | 180 | 0.1 | 1.70 | $42,460 | $46,650 |
| Ohio | 180 | 0.0 | 0.90 | $50,120 | $45,930 |
| Arizona | 170 | 0.1 | 1.43 | $43,720 | $38,110 |
| Virginia | 170 | 0.0 | 1.13 | $42,240 | $45,050 |
| Wisconsin | 130 | 0.0 | 1.18 | $44,210 | $44,220 |
| Iowa | 120 | 0.1 | 2.03 | $50,080 | $38,810 |
| Maryland | 110 | 0.0 | 1.07 | $58,840 | $59,550 |
| New Jersey | 110 | 0.0 | 0.67 | $57,510 | $52,950 |
| Utah | 100 | 0.1 | 1.54 | $47,260 | $41,440 |
| Florida | 90 | 0.0 | 0.24 | $40,070 | $35,250 |
| Kansas | 90 | 0.1 | 1.64 | $39,170 | $36,350 |
| Connecticut | 80 | 0.0 | 1.29 | $50,760 | $52,270 |
| North Carolina | 80 | 0.0 | 0.46 | $43,350 | $46,280 |
| Massachusetts | 70 | 0.0 | 0.48 | $61,140 | $63,110 |
| Oregon | 70 | 0.0 | 1.00 | $54,250 | $60,150 |
| Washington | 70 | 0.0 | 0.55 | $45,950 | $44,750 |
| Alabama | 60 | 0.0 | 0.75 | n/p | n/p |
| Colorado | 60 | 0.0 | 0.52 | $43,870 | $39,970 |
| Minnesota | 60 | 0.0 | 0.52 | $45,440 | $40,880 |
| Oklahoma | 60 | 0.0 | 0.98 | $37,470 | $31,770 |
| Kentucky | 30 | 0.0 | 0.45 | $40,990 | $39,630 |
| Maine | 30 | 0.0 | 1.33 | n/p | n/p |
| Louisiana | n/p | n/p | n/p | $53,660 | $53,830 |
| Nevada | n/p | n/p | n/p | $61,910 | $66,460 |
| Rhode Island | n/p | n/p | n/p | $42,650 | $39,340 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners stands number 746 by employment and number 635 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations, the group median wage is $59,300 across 51 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 24% less than its group median, and it supplies 0.1% of the group's 6,045,030 jobs. In 15 of the 32 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $45,320, 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
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN is the largest metro employer with 320 jobs, 5.6% 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
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | 320 | $59,730 | $54,390 |
| Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN | 250 | $58,560 | $45,230 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 240 | $61,460 | $57,460 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 230 | $34,510 | $25,420 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 220 | $48,050 | $46,790 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 170 | $41,640 | $38,080 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 160 | $51,440 | $47,170 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 140 | $54,190 | $50,640 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | 120 | $43,150 | $38,060 |
| St. Louis, MO-IL | 90 | $44,410 | $46,690 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
Budget arithmetic on the median: $3,777 a month before tax, $1,743 biweekly, $872 weekly. Moving from the 25th percentile ($35,820) to the 75th ($56,960) is worth $21,140 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 $49,852 would sit between the median ($45,320) and the 75th percentile ($56,960), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $35,820, is $9,500 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations
The occupations BLS groups with this one, by size: Automotive Body and Related Repairers, Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers, Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians, Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers, Tire Repairers and Changers, Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairers. Every one of the 826 published occupations is indexed on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners make?
The median annual wage is $45,320 and the mean is $49,020 in the BLS OEWS May 2024 estimates. The middle half of workers earn between $35,820 and $56,960 a year.
Which state pays Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners the most?
By median annual wage, Nevada leads the state table at $66,460, based on n/p jobs in that state. By mean wage and by headcount the leaders can differ, so the state table on this page shows all three measures side by side.
How many Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners are there in the United States?
BLS counted 5,730 wage and salary workers in this occupation in May 2024, 0.00% of all U.S. employment in the survey. The largest state employer is California with 600 jobs.
What do the OEWS percentiles mean for Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners?
They mark points in this occupation's pay distribution. One worker in ten earns $30,130 or less and one in ten earns $73,430 or more; the median, $45,320, is the wage of the worker exactly in the middle of the 5,730 counted jobs.