Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators
SOC 51-9151 · 2024-2034
Perform work involved in developing and processing photographic images from film or digital media. May perform precision tasks such as editing photographic negatives and prints.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $48,400per year
- Projected openings
- 1,900
- Projected change
- 0%
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
Skills this work uses most
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.
- Operations Monitoring
- Quality Control Analysis
- Active Listening
- Reading Comprehension
- Speaking
- Service Orientation
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $53,061 | 660 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties) | $50,632 | 160 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) | $48,323 | 180 |
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $46,522 | 220 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | $38,279 | 180 |
| San Rafael MD (Marin County) | Not reported | 70 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $38,765
- A quarter earn under
- $40,933
- Half earn under
- $48,400
- Three quarters earn under
- $68,652
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $86,357
A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.
Similar work
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.
| Occupation | Typical pay in California | Projected openings | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prepress Technicians and Workers | $55,089 | 2,410 | -16.7% |
| Printing Press Operators | $47,162 | 9,540 | -20% |
| Etchers and Engravers | $47,541 | 970 | -9.1% |
| Office Machine Operators, Except Computer | $48,266 | 2,680 | -13% |
| Semiconductor Processing Technicians | $49,126 | 3,890 | -16.7% |
| Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | $49,842 | 4,980 | -3.5% |