BLS OEWS May 2025 · SOC 53-7061
How much do car detailers make?
The occupation code that employed auto detailers, car wash staff and fleet cleaners are counted under.
- Median pay$35,830a year
- Median hourly$17.23an hour
- Mean pay$36,980a year
- Employed380,430nationally
The code is broad: a ceramic coating specialist and a car wash attendant share it. Mobile detailers working for themselves, which is a large and growing part of the trade, are not counted here at all.
What car detailers and vehicle cleaners earn, from the bottom tenth to the top
A single median hides the range, and in this trade the range is the useful part. These four figures are the published percentiles for occupation code 53-7061, not a calculation done here.
| Measure | Annual | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $27,380 | the bottom tenth earn less than this |
| Median | $35,830 | half earn more, half earn less |
| Mean | $36,980 | the average, pulled up by the top |
| 90th percentile | $47,610 | the top tenth earn more than this |
Hourly equivalents: $17.23 median, $17.78 mean
Where car detailers and vehicle cleaners are paid most, and where there are most of them
Five highest paying states
| State | Mean annual |
|---|---|
| New York | $45,660 |
| Alaska | $43,180 |
| District of Columbia | $43,090 |
| Washington | $42,800 |
| Colorado | $41,740 |
Five largest employing states
| State | Employed |
|---|---|
| California | 46,030 |
| Texas | 37,750 |
| Florida | 24,920 |
| New York | 20,390 |
| Illinois | 16,350 |
The two lists rarely overlap, and that is the point of showing both. A high mean wage usually tracks cost of living, while a high headcount tracks population. Neither on its own tells you where the work is.
SOC 53-7061 · 1 August 2026
What these figures actually say about car detailers and vehicle cleaners
A code broad enough to hold a ceramic coating specialist and a car wash attendant, which makes the median almost useless as a rate.
Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment covers tunnel wash staff, valeters and detailers together. Tunnel washes employ large numbers of people at hourly rates, and they dominate the headcount, which pulls the whole distribution down and compresses it: the gap between the bottom tenth and the top tenth here is among the narrowest in the dataset and the mean sits very close to the median.
Mobile detailers working for themselves are not counted at all, and they are a large and growing part of the trade. Worse, Census does not publish a nonemployer figure for car washes either, so this is one of four industries on the site where neither federal source can size the self employed half, and the only one of those four where the wage code is dominated by a business model most of the trade is not in. Both halves of the dataset are honest about that on their own pages.
The practical reading: a paint correction specialist charging by the day has nothing to learn from this median, and a detailing shop owner costing a hire does. They are different questions and this record only answers the second.
Reflections are the subject in detailing and reflections move when the camera does, which makes this the least forgiving trade on the site to photograph. Same position, same light, same place on the driveway, or the pair is measuring where you stood rather than what you did.
Every figure quoted above appears in the tables on this page or is arithmetic on them. Nothing here forecasts, values a business or suggests a price, because none of the three is measurable from a wage survey.
Where these numbers came from
Public domain US federal statistics, fetched by hand and baked into this site rather than called at build time. If you quote a figure from this page, cite the agency rather than this site, and use the wording below.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national cross industry estimates, occupation 53-7061 Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment. Accessed 2026-08-01.
National, cross-industry estimates for wage and salary workers. Self-employed workers, owner-operators and chair or booth renters are not in scope.
bls.gov/oes and the published series files at download.bls.gov
How many of these businesses there are
Marketing the trade
All the numbers
Common questions
- How much do car detailers make?
- The median wage for car detailers and vehicle cleaners in the United States is $35,830 a year, or $17.23 an hour. The mean is $36,980. The bottom tenth earn under $27,380 and the top tenth earn over $47,610. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, occupation code 53-7061.
- Does this include self-employed workers?
- No, and that matters more in this trade than the number does. OEWS covers wage and salary workers only. Self-employed workers, owner-operators, chair renters and single-van businesses are outside the survey entirely, so this is what an employed person in this job is paid, not what everyone doing this work earns.
- Which state pays the most?
- New York, at a mean of $45,660 a year, followed by Alaska at $43,180. The five highest paying and five largest employing states are listed above, and a high mean usually reflects cost of living as much as opportunity.
- What does this actually tell a car detailers and vehicle cleaner running their own business?
- A code broad enough to hold a ceramic coating specialist and a car wash attendant, which makes the median almost useless as a rate. Reflections are the subject in detailing and reflections move when the camera does, which makes this the least forgiving trade on the site to photograph. Same position, same light, same place on the driveway, or the pair is measuring where you stood rather than what you did.
- How current is this figure?
- It is the May 2025 release, which is the most recent Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data published by BLS. It was fetched and baked into this site on 1 August 2026. This page makes no live API call, so what you see is what was checked on that date.
Numbers persuade nobody. The pair does.
Every trade on this page sells the same way: a photograph of the problem beside a photograph of the result. Take the two, and Before and After Video Maker turns them into a 1080p video, a looping GIF or a still.