Salaries / Machinist
Skilled Trades · SOC 51-4041
Machinist salary
Machinists set up and operate machine tools to produce precision metal parts, often reading blueprints and running CNC equipment.
California · 2025
Median annual (CA)
$57,190
Median hourly (CA)
$27.49
Typical range (CA)
$37,440 to $88,280
California source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS 2025.
National
Median annual
$58,750
Median hourly
$28.24
Typical range
$39,200 to $80,010
National source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025. Figures are gross pay and vary by location, employer, and experience.
The pay range, visually.
Low end (about the 10th percentile), median, and high end (about the 90th percentile).
By state, at a glance
These at-a-glance figures are estimates derived from the national median and a state wage index, shown to give a rough sense of local differences. Pick any state (here or in the selector above) to look up its real figures.
Your skills are a business
Ideas we have for people in skilled trades.
The same experience that earns a paycheck as a machinist can start a business. Here are real ideas from our marketplace that fit this field.
Start a Wrestling Ring and Combat Sports Cage Manufacturing Business
Fabricate and sell professional wrestling rings, boxing rings, and MMA cages from a metal shop, serving a customer base almost nobody thinks about: hundreds of independent promotions, wrestling schools, gyms, and event companies that all need the same steel.
Start a Laser Engraving Business
Run a laser engraving and cutting shop that personalizes and produces on wood, acrylic, leather, metal, and glass: custom gifts, signage, awards, and small-batch products, built around one machine and a real niche instead of a firehose of random orders.
Start a Microphone Diaphragm and Precision Housing Supplier
Manufacture the precision physical components inside microphones (mylar and metal diaphragms, capsule backplates, grilles, and machined housings) and supply them to mic makers, a precision-manufacturing business behind the brands.
Start a Local 3D Print Service Bureau
A local shop that accepts customer-submitted STL and CAD files and prints prototypes, custom parts, and mockups on demand, priced per gram plus machine-hour rather than by flat rate.
You could hire machinists, not just be one.
We have a staffing calculator to price the work and a full course on how to start a staffing agency, so you can turn a field you already know into a business that puts other people to work.