Interpreters and Translators

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025

$60,170

Half earn more, half earn less

Middle half earn

$46,530 – $80,830

25th to 75th percentile

People employed, May 2025

52,060

Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)

Projected change, 2025–35

+2%

Growing slower than all jobs (0% to under 3.5%)

Openings a year (projected)

6,000

New jobs plus replacing people who leave

Typical education to enter

Bachelor's degree

BLS

• All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
• Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
• Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.

What the work involves

Interpret oral or sign language, or translate written text from one language into another.

Main tasks

• Follow ethical codes that protect the confidentiality of information.
• Translate messages simultaneously or consecutively into specified languages, orally or by using hand signs, maintaining message content, context, and style as much as possible.
• Listen to speakers' statements to determine meanings and to prepare translations, using electronic listening systems as necessary.
• Compile terminology and information to be used in translations, including technical terms such as those for legal or medical material.
• Refer to reference materials, such as dictionaries, lexicons, encyclopedias, and computerized terminology banks, as needed to ensure translation accuracy.
• Check translations of technical terms and terminology to ensure that they are accurate and remain consistent throughout translation revisions.
• Identify and resolve conflicts related to the meanings of words, concepts, practices, or behaviors.
• Compile information on content and context of information to be translated and on intended audience.

Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)

Bachelor's degree

O*NET Job Zone 4

Considerable preparation

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 87 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.

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