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Pay · 51-6051

Sewers, Hand earn $36,480 a year at the midpoint

Pay is unusually even: nine in ten people earn between $27,680 and $47,570, around a midpoint of $36,480.

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$36,480median a year · United States
$17.54an hour $37,210average 2,190people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$33,33025th $36,480median $40,72075th
$27,68010th percentile $47,57090th percentile
$33,330a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$47,600best-paying state · Colorado
$27,040lowest-paying state · Louisiana
+30%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.”

A short climbThe 25th percentile, $33,330, is within 9% of the median.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $47,600 in Colorado and $27,040 in Louisiana — a gap of $20,560 a year.

Hand sewer earnings, from starting pay to the top 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 →

Hand sewer pay rate, hourly and yearly

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

$36,483a year

Examples

Resumes written for this kind of work.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

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Neighbouring work, and what it pays

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

Sewers, Hand$36,480
Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers$62,750+$26,270 Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers$46,350+$9,870 Upholsterers$46,340+$9,860 Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$38,670+$2,190 Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders$38,180+$1,700 Sewing Machine Operators$36,670+$190

Hand sewer wages in each state

The 14 states where the most people do this work, of 17 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.62 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Colorado $47,600 $37,430 $37,430 — $51,260 —
Washington $45,170 $40,000 $40,000 — $45,200 —
California $42,420 $34,360 $34,360 — $52,800 110
Iowa $42,290 $37,920 $37,920 — $46,020 40
South Carolina $39,690 $25,380 $25,380 — $42,200 —
Nevada $39,440 $38,420 $38,420 — $52,000 —
Massachusetts $38,680 $31,200 $31,200 — $53,080 40
Florida $38,480 $29,570 $29,570 — $47,540 140
Georgia $38,210 $33,790 $33,790 — $47,160 120
New York $37,380 $36,510 $36,510 — $45,690 120
North Carolina $36,550 $27,830 $27,830 — $39,720 70
New Jersey $36,400 $34,980 $34,980 — $40,280 40
Pennsylvania $35,560 $31,130 $31,130 — $35,560 230
Texas $29,320 $17,380 $17,380 — $45,100 240

No estimate is published for 1 states: the survey withholds a figure when too few employers report it. Nothing has been filled in for them.

Ranked 745 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 5% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 743 Sewing Machine Operators $36,670
  2. 744 Recreation Workers $36,560
  3. 745 Sewers, Hand $36,480
  4. 746 Gambling Service Workers, All Other $36,310
  5. 747 Locker Room, Coatroom, and Dressing Room Attendants $36,300

Writing a resume for sewers, hand

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  • Selected thread, twine, cord, or yarn to be used, and thread needles.
  • Measured and aligned parts, fasteners, or trimmings, following seams, edges, or markings on parts.
  • Trimmed excess threads or edges of parts, using scissors or knives.

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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.

What people often ask

What is a hand sewer’s yearly income?

A hand sewer makes a median of $36,480 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $33,330 and $40,720.

What is a hand sewer’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $17.54 an hour; the average is $37,210 a year.

What is the starting pay for a hand sewer?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $33,330 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $27,680.

Which state pays sewers, hand the most?

Colorado, with a median of $47,600 a year.

How many people work as sewers, hand?

About 2,190 in the United States — number 745 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays about the same

Median pay within $190 of what sewers, hand earn — $36,480 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations