Real salary data
What Translators actually earn in 2026.
The median for Translator is $63,000 across 201 real salary records (H-1B visa filings and tech job postings), updated Aug 10, 2026.
01 / By source
Real salary bands, by source.
Bands come from 201 real records. Each source has a different bias, disclosed below.
Density curve fitted to the observed quartiles (log-normal). $49,920–$78,395 contains the middle 50% of records in the best-represented source; the shape between them is an approximation.
| Source | Records | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H-1B visa filings | 201 | $49,920 | $63,000 | $78,395 |
- H-1B visa filings (DOL) — over-represents visa-eligible roles (typically high-skill, high-wage)
Salary data updated Aug 10, 2026. Bands are percentiles, not averages; n is the number of underlying records.
02 / By city
What Translators earn, by city.
Real records; cities with at least 10 observations.
| City | Records | Range (p25–p75) | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | 20 | $44,845 – $85,051 | $63,897 |
| San Jose, CA | 10 | $108,750 – $167,211 | $151,380 |
03 / By state
What Translators earn, by state.
| State | Records | Range (p25–p75) | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA | 88 | $59,282 – $88,878 | $70,709 |
| NY | 30 | $45,651 – $80,910 | $63,897 |
04 / Context
How Translators pay compares with similar roles.
| Profession | Risk | Median | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising and Promotions Manager | Medium | $130,000 | -2.2% (2024–34) |
| Art Director | Medium | $150,213 | +4.2% (2024–34) |
| Commercial and Industrial Designer | Low | $91,135 | +3.2% (2024–34) |
| Content Writer | High | $89,013 | +3.6% (2024–34) |
| Copywriter | High | $89,013 | +3.6% (2024–34) |
05 / Next step
How to move up the pay band.
The skills below appear most often in higher-paid roles:
- 01Specialized legal & medical localization
- 02Machine-translation post-editing
- 03Terminology & quality management
- udemyThe Complete Translator & Interpreter CourseIntermediate
- udemyGetting started as a freelance translatorIntermediate
- udemyArabic| Learn Arabic with Mina | Comprehensive Arabic courseIntermediate
- udemyArabic: Learn Arabic Language| Online Arabic Language CourseIntermediate
- udemyHow To Become An InterpreterIntermediate
- udemyBuilding an Interpreter from scratchBeginner
- udemyCertified Professional SecretaryAdvanced
- udemySecretary Professional Certification (SPC)Advanced
06 / FAQ
Salary questions, answered.
01Why are the bands different from the BLS median?
The BLS median covers all Translator in the US. These bands come from real records with known biases — H-1B filings skew to visa-eligible (high-skill) roles and tech postings skew to tech employers — so they sit above the national median. We disclose the source of every band.
02How often is this data updated?
The dataset refreshes weekly from live job postings and quarterly from new H-1B disclosures.