Average Salary

• Annual wages for interpreters and translators in 2009 ranged from $22,810 to $74,150 a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS. The annual mean wage was at $45,700, while the median was $40,860.
  
  

Biggest Employers

• The BLS reports that elementary and secondary schools and firms providing technical and professional services were the two largest employers of interpreters and translators in 2009. The average salaries there were $37,530 and $52,680, respectively. General hospitals were No. 3, with an average of $44,040 a year. Local governments and junior colleges paid $45,070 and $49,890, respectively.
  
  

Top-Paying Employers

• Management, technical and scientific consulting companies paid the highest annual mean wage to interpreters and translators in 2009 --- $98,680, according to the BLS. The federal government was second on the list of top five paying employers, with an average of $72,330. Business support services were a distant No. 3, with an annual mean wage of $54,360. Scientific research and development firms had a yearly salary of $52,500.
  
  

Locations

• The BLS reports that Virginia and the District of Columbia were the two highest-paying states for interpreters and translators in 2009, with annual mean wages at $69,360 and $67,060, respectively. Arkansas and New York state followed with $58,580 and $58,430, respectively, although New York was the largest employer of these specialists out of the top-paying states. Fayetteville, North Carolina, paid the highest average salary for the profession, $118,920, followed by Little Rock, Arkansas, at $82,560 a year. Washington, D.C., paid an annual wage of $82,060.