Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators Salary and Pay
How much do Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators make?
In May 2024 the middle Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators worker earned $40,100 a year, the average was $46,050, and the survey counted 5,550 jobs. The 25th percentile is $34,460 and the 75th is $51,590.
What Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators actually pay, from the federal wage survey: a $40,100 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 ($40,100); 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 | $30,840 | $14.83 |
| 25th percentile | $34,460 | $16.57 |
| Median (50th) | $40,100 | $19.28 |
| 75th percentile | $51,590 | $24.80 |
| 90th percentile | $69,290 | $33.31 |
A percentile marks a point in this occupation's pay distribution: the worker one quarter of the way up the Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators ladder earns the 25th percentile wage, $34,460. 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
With 5,550 jobs nationally, Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators make up 0.00% of U.S. employment as BLS measured it in May 2024. The map is uneven: California alone holds 940 of those jobs, the top three states hold 38.2%, and the deepest concentration sits in Michigan (location quotient 4.53, where 1.00 is the national average). A quotient above 2 usually signals a local industry cluster rather than evenly spread demand.
Read the ladder as a career path in numbers: $34,460 at the 25th percentile, $40,100 at the middle, $51,590 at the 75th. The full 10-to-90 range runs $38,450, a ratio of 2.2 to 1. Where a specific job offer lands on that range says more about the role's level than the occupation's headline median does.
Pay by state
Every state with a publishable estimate is in this table, 29 of them, sorted by jobs. The pay leader by median is New York at $72,160; the jobs leader is California:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 940 | 0.1 | 1.45 | $51,050 | $45,850 |
| Michigan | 720 | 0.2 | 4.53 | $50,620 | $51,590 |
| North Carolina | 460 | 0.1 | 2.61 | $38,120 | $33,590 |
| Pennsylvania | 350 | 0.1 | 1.61 | $37,580 | $36,130 |
| New York | 340 | 0.0 | 0.98 | $75,980 | $72,160 |
| Indiana | 260 | 0.1 | 2.22 | $39,550 | $36,290 |
| Texas | 190 | 0.0 | 0.38 | $41,010 | $37,980 |
| Florida | 170 | 0.0 | 0.48 | $41,460 | $35,960 |
| Virginia | 130 | 0.0 | 0.86 | $39,890 | $36,430 |
| Maryland | 120 | 0.0 | 1.25 | $59,700 | $50,770 |
| Utah | 110 | 0.1 | 1.78 | $39,750 | $40,250 |
| Georgia | 100 | 0.0 | 0.56 | $31,180 | $29,830 |
| Tennessee | 100 | 0.0 | 0.82 | $32,750 | $31,370 |
| Iowa | 90 | 0.1 | 1.63 | $38,300 | $32,100 |
| New Jersey | 90 | 0.0 | 0.56 | $49,320 | $41,250 |
| Wisconsin | 90 | 0.0 | 0.87 | $46,180 | $44,750 |
| Washington | 70 | 0.0 | 0.57 | $57,610 | $51,730 |
| Alabama | 60 | 0.0 | 0.80 | $32,220 | $28,910 |
| Kentucky | 60 | 0.0 | 0.83 | $40,370 | $38,900 |
| Oregon | 60 | 0.0 | 0.78 | $40,900 | $38,650 |
| New Mexico | 50 | 0.1 | 1.77 | $49,810 | $35,960 |
| Connecticut | 40 | 0.0 | 0.68 | n/p | n/p |
| Kansas | 30 | 0.0 | 0.60 | $33,320 | $29,120 |
| Ohio | 30 | 0.0 | 0.17 | $50,610 | $50,120 |
| Arizona | n/p | n/p | n/p | $37,280 | $35,520 |
| Illinois | n/p | n/p | n/p | $37,350 | $29,120 |
| Massachusetts | n/p | n/p | n/p | $37,890 | $37,230 |
| Missouri | n/p | n/p | n/p | $44,660 | $37,370 |
| South Carolina | n/p | n/p | n/p | $27,920 | $28,860 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators stands number 753 by employment and number 702 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Production Occupations, the group median wage is $46,020 across 105 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 13% less than its group median, and it supplies 0.1% of the group's 8,743,430 jobs. In 9 of the 28 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $40,100, 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
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA is the largest metro employer with 360 jobs, 6.5% 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 360 | $54,580 | $48,600 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 320 | $73,390 | $69,360 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 170 | $39,870 | $36,130 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 120 | $58,590 | $53,290 |
| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | 100 | $41,560 | $38,280 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 100 | $46,990 | $39,520 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 80 | $31,970 | $33,280 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 80 | $38,190 | $33,800 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 70 | $49,270 | $44,920 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 70 | $45,260 | $43,410 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
Budget arithmetic on the median: $3,342 a month before tax, $1,542 biweekly, $771 weekly. Moving from the 25th percentile ($34,460) to the 75th ($51,590) is worth $17,130 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 $44,110 would sit between the median ($40,100) and the 75th percentile ($51,590), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $34,460, is $5,640 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Production Occupations
Sibling occupations in Production Occupations: Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers, Butchers and Meat Cutters, Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic, Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders, Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators, Sewing Machine Operators. Medians there are computed identically, so the comparison is apples to apples; the full set lives on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators make an hour?
The median hourly wage is $19.28, and the mean hourly wage is $22.14, from the May 2024 OEWS estimates. Annual figures for Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators use the survey's 2,080-hour year where a conversion is needed, which is how the $40,100 annual median and the hourly figures reconcile.
Which state pays Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators the most?
New York, with a median annual wage of $72,160 across 340 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 Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators workforce?
5,550 wage and salary workers in May 2024, 0.00% of U.S. employment in the survey. Employment concentrates most in Michigan by location quotient (4.53).
How current is this Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators salary data?
These are the May 2024 OEWS estimates behind the $40,100 median and the 5,550 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.