---
title: "Manicurist and Pedicurist"
description: "Clean and shape customers' fingernails and toenails. May polish or decorate nails."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/manicurist-and-pedicurist"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Manicurist and Pedicurist

**Category:** Personal Care and Service · **SOC code:** 39-5092 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 39-5092.00

Clean and shape customers' fingernails and toenails. May polish or decorate nails.

Also advertised as: Manicurist; Nail Technician (Nail Tech); Pedicurist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $35,760 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.19/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $28,920 to $50,140, with the middle half between $34,010 and $41,650
- **Total US employment:** 152,770
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +7.0% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 24,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 49/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 152,770 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $28,920 |
| 25th | $34,010 |
| 50th (median) | $35,760 |
| 75th | $41,650 |
| 90th | $50,140 |
| Mean (average) | $38,570 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| HI | $60,790 | $55,288 | 40 |
| NE | $56,940 | $63,194 | 310 |
| WA | $49,900 | $46,630 | 5,570 |
| ME | $48,540 | $50,015 | 200 |
| AK | $47,890 | $46,786 | 180 |
| OR | $46,080 | $44,582 | 2,210 |
| IA | $45,420 | $51,754 | 190 |
| KY | $45,310 | $50,256 | 240 |
| SD | $45,310 | $51,148 | 250 |
| NV | $41,880 | $41,889 | 1,020 |
| MO | $39,100 | $43,054 | 1,630 |
| WV | $38,260 | $42,750 | 120 |
| FL | $37,840 | $36,591 | 4,470 |
| MD | $37,300 | $35,538 | 2,080 |
| MS | $37,300 | $42,897 | 520 |

35 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 50 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/manicurist-and-pedicurist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/manicurist-and-pedicurist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 210,100 in the 2024–2034 base year to 224,800 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 14,700 jobs, or +7.0%. Much faster than average: 7.0% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 24,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Postsecondary nondegree award (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 49.2% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 35.8% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 14.8% |
| Some College Courses | 0.3% |

## What the work involves

- Clean and sanitize tools and work environment.
- Apply undercoat and clear or colored polish onto nails with brush.
- Shape and smooth ends of nails, using scissors, files, or emery boards.
- Prepare customers' nails in soapy water, using swabs, files, and orange sticks.
- Remove previously applied nail polish, using liquid remover and swabs.
- Assess the condition of clients' hands, remove dead skin, and massage hands.
- Advise clients on nail care and use of products and colors.
- Prepare nail cuticles with water and oil, using cuticle knives to push back cuticles and scissors or nippers to trim cuticles.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.63 |
| C — Conventional | 3.67 |
| S — Social | 3.06 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.35 |
| A — Artistic | 2.29 |
| I — Investigative | 1.30 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 74.7 |
| ISTJ | 73.5 |
| ESTJ | 71.1 |
| ESFJ | 66.1 |
| ISTP | 59.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ, ISTJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Hairstylist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hairstylist) — median $35,790
- [Painting, Coating, and Decorating Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/painting-coating-and-decorating-worker) — median $41,600
- [Skincare Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/skincare-specialist) — median $45,330
- [Barber](https://nuecareer.com/careers/barber) — median $38,210
- [Shampooer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shampooer) — median $32,600
- [Furniture Finisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/furniture-finisher) — median $44,540
- [Makeup Artist, Theatrical and Performance](https://nuecareer.com/careers/makeup-artist-theatrical-and-performance) — median $97,150
- [Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/coating-painting-and-spraying-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $48,250
- [Grinding and Polishing Worker, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/grinding-and-polishing-worker-hand) — median $42,660
- [Tool Grinder, Filer, and Sharpener](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tool-grinder-filer-and-sharpener) — median $50,060

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/manicurist-and-pedicurist