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Pay · 27-1022

Fashion Designers earn $80,960 a year at the midpoint

Where you land matters more here than in most jobs — the top tenth earn more than 3.7 times the bottom tenth. The midpoint is $80,960.

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$80,960median a year · United States
$38.92an hour $91,230average 21,450people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$51,94025th $80,960median $106,47075th
$39,49010th percentile $146,87090th percentile
$51,940a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$103,520best-paying state · Massachusetts
$40,040lowest-paying state · Texas
+28%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.
  • 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 $103,520 in Massachusetts and $40,040 in Texas — a gap of $63,480 a year.

Fashion designer 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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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Related work, and what it pays

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

Fashion Designers$80,960
Set and Exhibit Designers$75,240−$5,720 Merchandise Displayers and Window Trimmers$39,390−$41,570 Floral Designers$37,360−$43,600

Number 193 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 76% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 191 Orthotists and Prosthetists $81,110
  2. 192 Financial Specialists, All Other $81,100
  3. 193 Fashion Designers $80,960
  4. 194 Compliance Officers $80,730
  5. 195 Social and Community Service Managers $80,390

Examples

Resumes made for this kind of work.

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Fashion designer wages in each state

The 19 states where the most people do this work, of 23 with a published figure: their medians range by 2.59 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Massachusetts $103,520 $57,710 $57,710 — $174,250 540
New Jersey $101,610 $65,790 $65,790 — $132,470 160
New Hampshire $100,160 $64,430 $64,430 — $131,920 40
New York $98,640 $62,610 $62,610 — $177,430 5,760
Colorado $94,140 $59,180 $59,180 — $132,990 360
Virginia $94,120 $50,410 $50,410 — $118,490 100
Ohio $82,050 $43,820 $43,820 — $93,070 90
Connecticut $81,510 $45,040 $45,040 — $194,570 50
Vermont $79,610 $50,940 $50,940 — $99,810 60
Georgia $78,340 $48,860 $48,860 — $152,970 120
North Carolina $74,990 $32,280 $32,280 — $195,590 460
Pennsylvania $63,840 $48,520 $48,520 — $133,820 320
Michigan $63,430 $31,800 $31,800 — $102,330 40
Kansas $59,150 $48,860 $48,860 — $104,620 40
Wisconsin $57,030 $37,950 $37,950 — $75,770 120
Florida $43,020 $27,710 $27,710 — $82,330 1,100
Minnesota $42,110 $42,110 $42,110 — $56,080 420
Indiana $40,740 $39,190 $39,190 — $85,580 120
Texas $40,040 $28,170 $28,170 — $98,620 1,850

No estimate is published for 7 states: the survey withholds a figure when too few employers report it. Nothing has been filled in for them.

Fashion designer pay rate, from hourly to yearly

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

$80,954a year

Writing a resume for fashion designers

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

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  • Sketched rough and detailed drawings of apparel or accessories, and wrote specifications such as color schemes, construction, material types, and accessory requirements.
  • Examined sample garments on and off models, modifying designs to achieve desired effects.
  • Conferred with sales and management executives or with clients to discuss design ideas.

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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.

Questions people ask most

What is a fashion designer’s yearly income?

A fashion designer makes a median of $80,960 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $51,940 and $106,470.

What is a fashion designer’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $38.92 an hour; the average is $91,230 a year.

What is the starting pay for a fashion designer?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $51,940 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $39,490.

Which state pays fashion designers the most?

Massachusetts, with a median of $103,520 a year.

How many people work as fashion designers?

About 21,450 in the United States — number 193 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays roughly the same

Median pay within $530 of what fashion designers earn — $80,960 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations