Occupation salary profile

Interior Designers

SOC 27-1025 BLS OEWS May 2025 H-1B LCAs, last 12 months

Plan, design, and furnish the internal space of rooms or buildings. Design interior environments or create physical layouts that are practical, aesthetic, and conducive to the intended purposes. May specialize in a particular field, style, or phase of interior design. Excludes “Merchandise Displayers and Window Trimmers” (27-1026).

National median · BLS
$67,190
▲ +5.83% YoY
H-1B sponsor median
$70,860
▲ +1.23% YoY · 380 LCAs
Average salary · BLS
$74,540
Mean annual wage
U.S. employment
71,500
Jobs (BLS)
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Enter your pay and a location to see where you stand against BLS and H-1B pay, your estimated take-home pay, and your purchasing power.

Pay range for Interior Designers

Annual base pay at each percentile. BLS covers all U.S. workers in this occupation; H-1B covers 380 certified Labor Condition Applications filed by sponsoring employers in the last 12 months.

Percentile All U.S. workers (BLS) H-1B sponsored
10th — entry pay$41,420$53,952
25th$51,840$61,152
Median (50th)$67,190$70,860
75th$85,740$85,000
90th — top pay$114,140$105,000
H-1B sponsors pay a median of $70,860 for Interior Designers — 5.5% above the BLS national median of $67,190.

Hourly ⇄ annual pay

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Based on hrs/week × weeks/year = 2,080 hrs
Projections 2025–2035

Job outlook for Interior Designers

BLS projects employment of interior designers to grow 2.7% from 2025 to 2035, slower than the 3.5% average for all occupations. About 7,700 openings are projected each year, on average, from new jobs and from replacing workers who retire or move to other occupations.

Jobs 2025 → 2035
97,100 → 99,700
+2,600 jobs
Projected change
+2.7%
All occupations: +3.5%
Openings per year
7,700
Average, 2025–2035
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree
No related experience required
Self-employed
26.4% of workers (2025)
Preparation needed (O*NET Job Zone 4)
Considerable Preparation Needed. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Fastest-growing jobs → Best-paying jobs that need a bachelor's degree →

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–2035 · BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook →

H-1B sponsored pay

Pay by H-1B wage level

Employers assign every H-1B filing a Department of Labor prevailing-wage level, from Level I (entry) to Level IV (fully competent). Pay rises steeply with level.

H-1B median $70,860
Change vs prior year +1.23%
After inflation (CPI-U) -1.84%
Wage level LCAs Share P25 Median P75
Level I 114 30% $52,000 $59,754 $65,280
Level II 155 40.8% $64,032 $70,000 $80,109
Level III 65 17.1% $79,747 $82,000 $90,000
Level IV 45 11.8% $100,000 $110,000 $125,000
H-1B job titles

Salaries by job title in Interior Designers

The 3 most-filed job titles inside SOC 27-1025, from 380 H-1B filings. Seniority words and level numbers are grouped (“Senior Data Engineer II” counts as Data Engineer). Tap a title for its full range, wage levels and the exact titles employers used.

Job title LCAs Share P25 Median P75 YoY
Interior Designer 153 40.26% $59,509 $65,374 $79,747 +0.58%
Designer generic 70 18.42% $66,560 $75,000 $90,000 +2.74%
Lighting Designer 14 3.68% $69,999 $78,500 $90,790 +12.14%

Titles are cleaned from the employer's own LCA text (codes and typos removed, nothing invented). Rows need 10+ filings in this SOC.

Skills & tools

Skills needed for Interior Designers

How important each skill and knowledge area is for this job, rated by O*NET on a 1–5 scale from surveys of workers and occupational analysts.

Top skills
  • Active Listening4.0
  • Critical Thinking4.0
  • Reading Comprehension4.0
  • Speaking4.0
  • Coordination3.8
  • Service Orientation3.8
  • Social Perceptiveness3.8
  • Complex Problem Solving3.6
  • Writing3.6
  • Judgment and Decision Making3.5
Top knowledge areas
  • Design4.9
  • Customer and Personal Service4.5
  • Building and Construction4.2
  • English Language4.1
  • Sales and Marketing3.8
  • Administration and Management3.6
  • Computers and Electronics3.5
  • Public Safety and Security3.4
Software and technology used
Adobe Creative Cloud softwareAdobe IllustratorAdobe InDesignAdobe PhotoshopAutodesk AutoCADAutodesk RevitMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft Office softwareTrimble SketchUp ProChaos EnscapeAdobe AcrobatMicrosoft OutlookMicrosoft PowerPointMicrosoft ProjectMicrosoft Word20-20 Technologies 20-20 DesignAutodesk 3ds MaxAutodesk Architectural Desktop

Highlighted = in demand: frequently listed in employer job postings for this occupation (O*NET).

Source: O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.

About the job

What interior designers do

  • Design plans to be safe and to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act (ADA).
  • Use computer-aided drafting (CAD) and related software to produce construction documents.
  • Research health and safety code requirements to inform design.
  • Confer with client to determine factors affecting planning of interior environments, such as budget, architectural preferences, purpose, and function.
  • Advise client on interior design factors, such as space planning, layout and use of furnishings or equipment, and color coordination.
  • Coordinate with other professionals, such as contractors, architects, engineers, and plumbers, to ensure job success.
  • Review and detail shop drawings for construction plans.
  • Inspect construction work on site to ensure its adherence to the design plans.
Also called
DesignerInterior Design ConsultantInterior Design CoordinatorInterior DesignerCertified Kitchen DesignerColor and Materials DesignerCommercial Interior DesignerDecorating ConsultantInterior DecoratorRegistered Interior Designer
More job titles for this occupation (19)
Bathroom Designer (Bath Designer)DecoratorDesign ConsultantFurniture ArrangerHome DecoratorHome DesignerHome Lighting AdvisorHouse DesignerKitchen and Batch DesignerKitchen and Bathroom Designer (Kitchen and Bath Designer)Kitchen Cabinet DesignerKitchen DesignerLighting DesignerProject DesignerProject Interior DesignerResidential DesignerResidential Interior DesignerRoom DesignerStylist

Source: O*NET 31.0 (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0). These are general job titles, not H-1B filings; for titles employers actually filed, see “Job titles” above.