BLS OEWS May 2025 · SOC 39-5094
How much do estheticians make?
Pay for skincare specialists, the federal occupation code that licensed estheticians are counted under.
- Median pay$45,330a year
- Median hourly$21.79an hour
- Mean pay$51,850a year
- Employed72,890nationally
Lash and brow technicians have no occupation code of their own. Many hold an esthetics or cosmetology licence, so this record is the closest published figure, but it is a proxy and not a measurement of lash work specifically.
What estheticians and skincare specialists 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 39-5094, not a calculation done here.
| Measure | Annual | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $29,580 | the bottom tenth earn less than this |
| Median | $45,330 | half earn more, half earn less |
| Mean | $51,850 | the average, pulled up by the top |
| 90th percentile | $82,050 | the top tenth earn more than this |
Hourly equivalents: $21.79 median, $24.93 mean
Where estheticians and skincare specialists are paid most, and where there are most of them
Five highest paying states
| State | Mean annual |
|---|---|
| District of Columbia | $83,730 |
| Washington | $83,090 |
| Nebraska | $65,260 |
| Montana | $64,470 |
| Colorado | $64,440 |
Five largest employing states
| State | Employed |
|---|---|
| California | 11,360 |
| Texas | 6,160 |
| Florida | 5,270 |
| New York | 3,510 |
| Illinois | 2,960 |
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 39-5094 · 1 August 2026
What these figures actually say about estheticians and skincare specialists
This is the closest published wage record to lash and brow work, and it is a proxy rather than a measurement.
Lash technicians and brow artists have no occupation code of their own. Many hold an esthetics or cosmetology licence, so Skincare Specialists is where they would be classified if they were on a payroll at all, which is the second problem: much of this work is done by sole traders renting a room, and sole traders are outside this survey entirely.
What the record does show clearly is that this is the best paid of the chairside beauty occupations on the site by median, ahead of hairdressing, nail work and barbering, with a wide spread behind it. The top tenth earn well over twice the bottom tenth, which is a wider range than nail work and a similar one to hairdressing. Skincare work sold as a course of treatments prices differently from work sold as a single appointment, and the survey cannot separate them.
Treat the employment figure as the smaller half of the picture. The Census code that holds lash, brow and tattoo studios is a catch all that also contains tanning salons and day spas, so neither of the two federal sources can give a defensible count of lash artists specifically. That is a real limit of the data rather than a gap in this page.
A trade with no code of its own is a trade with no ready made authority to borrow, which puts the whole weight on the portfolio. The claims rule matters here more than in any other beauty trade: describe the work and the look, keep the lighting identical, and let a pair that obviously has not been helped do the arguing.
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 39-5094 Skincare Specialists. 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 estheticians make?
- The median wage for estheticians and skincare specialists in the United States is $45,330 a year, or $21.79 an hour. The mean is $51,850. The bottom tenth earn under $29,580 and the top tenth earn over $82,050. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, occupation code 39-5094.
- 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?
- District of Columbia, at a mean of $83,730 a year, followed by Washington at $83,090. 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 estheticians and skincare specialist running their own business?
- This is the closest published wage record to lash and brow work, and it is a proxy rather than a measurement. A trade with no code of its own is a trade with no ready made authority to borrow, which puts the whole weight on the portfolio. The claims rule matters here more than in any other beauty trade: describe the work and the look, keep the lighting identical, and let a pair that obviously has not been helped do the arguing.
- 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.