What a assembler earns, by metro

Median pay for assemblers runs from $23,000 in Arecibo to $64,950 in Lafayette — a 2.82× range across 509 metropolitan areas. The national median of $44,650 sits inside that range but describes no particular market.

What the percentile band tells you

Ten per cent of assemblers earn below $33,280 and ten per cent above $64,880 — a 1.95× band. The upside from median to 90th percentile is 45%, which is a normal amount of room for experience and specialisation to matter. An offer below the 25th percentile is worth questioning; one above the 75th is worth taking seriously.

Where the money is

Lafayette (LA) leads and Arecibo (PR) trails, but the gap is modest. For a role like this the more useful comparison is not between cities but between the 10th and 90th percentile within one — see the band above.

Highest paying metros

Lowest paying metros

Elkhart-Goshen is the cluster

Elkhart-Goshen has 16.43× the national concentration of assemblers — the densest market in the country for this role, with 18,960 employed locally. Pay there is $46,960, which does not put it near the top of the pay table. Concentration and compensation are different things — a dense market is easier to get hired in and easier to move around within, but the competition that makes it dense also caps what employers need to offer.

Where the role is most concentrated

Largest employers by metro

Current openings

About this data

Figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme, May 2025 release, SOC code 51-2090. OEWS surveys employers, so it reports what is actually paid rather than what job advertisements claim, and it excludes the self-employed. Estimates cover 509 of 528 metropolitan areas — near-complete coverage, which means the ranges above are reliable rather than drawn from a handful of markets. Read the methodology.