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Pay · 39-9031

Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors earn $47,160 a year at the midpoint

Half earn more than that and half earn less. The lowest tenth are paid about $28,800, the highest tenth about $83,100 — figures from the 2025 federal wage survey.

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$47,160median a year · United States
$22.67an hour $52,420average 322,930people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$35,28025th $47,160median $61,73075th
$28,80010th percentile $83,10090th percentile
$35,280a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$64,620best-paying state · Massachusetts
$30,540lowest-paying state · Mississippi
+37%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $64,620 in Massachusetts and $30,540 in Mississippi — a gap of $34,080 a year.

Fitness trainer earnings, from starting pay to the highest 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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Place 587 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 26% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 585 Opticians, Dispensing $47,260
  2. 586 Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic $47,180
  3. 587 Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors $47,160
  4. 588 Construction Laborers $47,120
  5. 589 Bill and Account Collectors $47,030

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  • Observed participants and informed them of corrective measures necessary for skill improvement.
  • Offered alternatives during classes to accommodate different levels of fitness.
  • Monitored participants' progress and adapted programs as needed.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Fitness trainer wages, state by state

The 49 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 2.12 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Massachusetts $64,620 $36,110 $36,110 — $105,390 9,200
Connecticut $61,580 $34,010 $34,010 — $103,590 2,850
New Jersey $59,870 $34,620 $34,620 — $104,000 11,350
Oregon $58,510 $35,390 $35,390 — $101,380 4,800
California $57,990 $36,750 $36,750 — $100,920 43,600
Nevada $57,960 $32,880 $32,880 — $84,180 3,010
Vermont $57,300 $34,210 $34,210 — $98,730 710
Washington $50,830 $38,960 $38,960 — $93,450 9,270
Colorado $49,900 $34,110 $34,110 — $87,340 10,500
Idaho $49,780 $29,170 $29,170 — $76,340 2,360
New Hampshire $49,360 $30,750 $30,750 — $82,600 1,500
Hawaii $48,290 $33,420 $33,420 — $81,090 990
Arizona $47,980 $30,770 $30,770 — $83,200 7,010
Maryland $47,420 $33,130 $33,130 — $81,730 8,650
Tennessee $47,380 $26,000 $26,000 — $74,920 5,080
Georgia $47,150 $28,330 $28,330 — $80,940 7,500
New York $47,090 $34,300 $34,300 — $105,700 20,140
Maine $47,060 $35,230 $35,230 — $79,040 1,140
Illinois $46,800 $31,210 $31,210 — $92,780 19,830
North Carolina $46,450 $24,910 $24,910 — $74,210 10,670
Alaska $46,210 $27,700 $27,700 — $61,650 800
Rhode Island $45,640 $31,200 $31,200 — $77,230 990
Michigan $45,520 $28,040 $28,040 — $76,970 6,050
Kentucky $45,280 $23,720 $23,720 — $70,790 1,990
Pennsylvania $45,250 $27,780 $27,780 — $67,450 11,580
Utah $44,800 $25,850 $25,850 — $83,510 6,830
New Mexico $44,680 $26,620 $26,620 — $58,490 1,030
Oklahoma $44,520 $21,910 $21,910 — $61,860 2,300
Louisiana $44,410 $21,190 $21,190 — $60,180 2,290
Delaware $44,340 $32,150 $32,150 — $76,450 1,210
Wisconsin $44,200 $27,900 $27,900 — $61,600 6,330
Montana $43,940 $29,510 $29,510 — $75,020 1,420
South Carolina $43,630 $22,730 $22,730 — $62,120 5,130
Minnesota $43,620 $29,660 $29,660 — $66,650 7,010
Arkansas $42,140 $26,710 $26,710 — $59,820 1,390
Texas $40,880 $21,930 $21,930 — $76,340 19,260
Virginia $40,820 $26,560 $26,560 — $74,510 12,100
South Dakota $40,070 $30,090 $30,090 — $58,730 950
District of Columbia $39,210 $37,080 $37,080 — $80,610 1,480
Alabama $39,180 $19,330 $19,330 — $57,320 2,680
Florida $38,800 $27,450 $27,450 — $72,870 18,070
North Dakota $37,760 $30,140 $30,140 — $60,070 680
Missouri $36,450 $28,600 $28,600 — $62,390 5,060
Ohio $36,370 $24,040 $24,040 — $59,290 9,040
Iowa $36,160 $24,660 $24,660 — $52,810 2,510
Kansas $35,900 $23,980 $23,980 — $61,900 4,510
Indiana $34,960 $22,410 $22,410 — $56,720 5,360
Nebraska $31,440 $28,080 $28,080 — $53,480 2,410
Mississippi $30,540 $18,720 $18,720 — $63,390 1,260

Fitness trainer pay rate, hourly to annual

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$47,154a year

Nearby work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors$47,160
Personal Care and Service Workers, All Other$41,600−$5,560 Recreation Workers$36,560−$10,600 Childcare workers$34,980−$12,180

Questions people often ask

What is a fitness trainer’s yearly income?

A fitness trainer makes a median of $47,160 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $35,280 and $61,730.

What is a fitness trainer’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $22.67 an hour; the average is $52,420 a year.

What is the starting pay for a fitness trainer?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $35,280 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $28,800.

Which state pays exercise trainers and group fitness instructors the most?

Massachusetts, with a median of $64,620 a year.

How many people work as exercise trainers and group fitness instructors?

About 322,930 in the United States — number 587 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays nearly the same

Median pay within $180 of what exercise trainers and group fitness instructors earn — $47,160 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations