Kinesiology Degree Programs

Salary · SOC 39-9031

Fitness Trainer Salary

Fitness Trainers earn a median of $47,160 a year, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025. Here is the full distribution, every state BLS publishes, and how that fitness trainer salary compares with the other careers a kinesiology degree leads to.

Taylor Rupe, Founder & Editor

Edited by Taylor Rupe B.A. Psychology (UW-Seattle), B.S. Computer Science (Oregon State)

A fitness trainer correcting a client's form partway through a dumbbell set in a gym
Photograph by Abdelilah Hibat Allah on Pexels

How Much Do Fitness Trainers Make?

The figure normally quoted for an occupation is its median, which is the midpoint of a distribution rather than an offer. Both published tails are below.

Annual wages, U.S.

BLS OEWS · May 2025

$28,800 $83,100
10th pct
$28,800
25th pct
$35,280
Median
$47,160
75th pct
$61,730
90th pct
$83,100

322,930 people were employed in this occupation nationally, and the median hourly wage was $22.67.

What the spread actually tells you

Half of fitness trainers earn more than $47,160 and half earn less. The bottom tenth are under $28,800 and the top tenth clear $83,100, so the published range is about $54,300 wide. Put another way, the top tenth earn about 2.9x what the bottom tenth do. That is a relatively tight spread, so the median is a reasonable planning figure for this occupation.

The middle half of the workforce sits between $35,280 and $61,730. If you want one number to plan against, that band is more honest than the median alone, because it shows where most people actually land rather than where the exact midpoint falls.

BLS counts 322,930 people employed in this occupation nationally. Size matters when you read wage data: a high median in a small occupation can mean fewer openings and less room to negotiate, not a better market.

Fitness Trainer Salary by State

All 51 states with published data, alphabetically. 16 of them pay above the national median. States are absent when BLS withheld the estimate because the sample was too small.

State 10th pct Median 90th pct Employed
Alabama $19,330 $39,180 $57,320 2,680
Alaska $27,700 $46,210 $61,650 800
Arizona $30,770 $47,980 $83,200 7,010
Arkansas $26,710 $42,140 $59,820 1,390
California $36,750 $57,990 $100,920 43,600
Colorado $34,110 $49,900 $87,340 10,500
Connecticut $34,010 $61,580 $103,590 2,850
Delaware $32,150 $44,340 $76,450 1,210
District of Columbia $37,080 $39,210 $80,610 1,480
Florida $27,450 $38,800 $72,870 18,070
Georgia $28,330 $47,150 $80,940 7,500
Hawaii $33,420 $48,290 $81,090 990
Idaho $29,170 $49,780 $76,340 2,360
Illinois $31,210 $46,800 $92,780 19,830
Indiana $22,410 $34,960 $56,720 5,360
Iowa $24,660 $36,160 $52,810 2,510
Kansas $23,980 $35,900 $61,900 4,510
Kentucky $23,720 $45,280 $70,790 1,990
Louisiana $21,190 $44,410 $60,180 2,290
Maine $35,230 $47,060 $79,040 1,140
Maryland $33,130 $47,420 $81,730 8,650
Massachusetts $36,110 $64,620 $105,390 9,200
Michigan $28,040 $45,520 $76,970 6,050
Minnesota $29,660 $43,620 $66,650 7,010
Mississippi $18,720 $30,540 $63,390 1,260
Missouri $28,600 $36,450 $62,390 5,060
Montana $29,510 $43,940 $75,020 1,420
Nebraska $28,080 $31,440 $53,480 2,410
Nevada $32,880 $57,960 $84,180 3,010
New Hampshire $30,750 $49,360 $82,600 1,500
New Jersey $34,620 $59,870 $104,000 11,350
New Mexico $26,620 $44,680 $58,490 1,030
New York $34,300 $47,090 $105,700 20,140
North Carolina $24,910 $46,450 $74,210 10,670
North Dakota $30,140 $37,760 $60,070 680
Ohio $24,040 $36,370 $59,290 9,040
Oklahoma $21,910 $44,520 $61,860 2,300
Oregon $35,390 $58,510 $101,380 4,800
Pennsylvania $27,780 $45,250 $67,450 11,580
Rhode Island $31,200 $45,640 $77,230 990
South Carolina $22,730 $43,630 $62,120 5,130
South Dakota $30,090 $40,070 $58,730 950
Tennessee $26,000 $47,380 $74,920 5,080
Texas $21,930 $40,880 $76,340 19,260
Utah $25,850 $44,800 $83,510 6,830
Vermont $34,210 $57,300 $98,730 710
Virginia $26,560 $40,820 $74,510 12,100
Washington $38,960 $50,830 $93,450 9,270
West Virginia $22,290 $38,120 $55,180 500
Wisconsin $27,900 $44,200 $61,600 6,330
Wyoming $22,150 $50,250 $99,490 560

A blank cell means BLS suppressed that value for this occupation in that state.

Highest and Lowest Paying States for Fitness Trainers

Employment sits beside each median deliberately. A high median resting on a few dozen jobs describes a thin local market rather than a strong one.

Highest median

  • Massachusetts $64,620 9,200 jobs
  • Connecticut $61,580 2,850 jobs
  • New Jersey $59,870 11,350 jobs
  • Oregon $58,510 4,800 jobs
  • California $57,990 43,600 jobs

Lowest median

  • Mississippi $30,540 1,260 jobs
  • Nebraska $31,440 2,410 jobs
  • Indiana $34,960 5,360 jobs
  • Kansas $35,900 4,510 jobs
  • Iowa $36,160 2,510 jobs

How Fitness Trainer Pay Compares

Among the 8 occupations a kinesiology degree leads to, this one ranks 8 on median pay. The next step up is coaches and scouts at $47,320.

This is one of the jobs a kinesiology degree reaches directly, so the median here is a figure you can weigh against tuition without adding a second degree to the calculation. The career profile has the education spread and the credentials employers ask for.

The full comparison across all 8 occupations, split by whether the degree reaches them directly, is on the salaries overview.

What Moves Fitness Trainer Pay Up

BLS publishes wages, not the reasons behind them, so treat this as context rather than data. Three things separate the $83,100 end of this distribution from the $28,800 end.

  • Geography, and it is the one you can verify. Massachusetts pays a median of $64,620 against $47,160, and the table above shows the whole range.
  • Setting. Within any of these occupations, hospital and home-health roles generally pay above school, community and commercial settings, and the gap is often larger than the difference between states.
  • Credentials. The certifications on this route are what employers screen for, and the clinical tier of a credential usually opens the better-paying settings.

Fitness Trainer Salary FAQ

How much does a fitness trainer make?
The median is $47,160 a year (BLS, May 2025). The bottom tenth earn under $28,800 and the top tenth clear $83,100. That works out at about $22.67 an hour at the median.
What is the highest paying state for fitness trainers?
Massachusetts, at a median of $64,620. That is $17,460 above the national median. 16 of the 51 states with published data pay above the national figure.
Do fitness trainers earn more with experience?
The published distribution suggests so, though BLS reports percentiles rather than years of service. The 25th percentile is $35,280 and the 75th is $61,730, a gap of $26,450 across the middle half of the workforce. Setting and region account for much of that alongside experience.
Is a fitness trainer salary good compared to other kinesiology careers?
It ranks 8 of the 8 occupations this site covers. The highest is physical therapists at $102,760, though that route requires its own professional degree.
What education do you need to be a fitness trainer?
38% of O*NET respondents named post-secondary certificate. A kinesiology degree can lead to this job directly.
Are these figures adjusted for cost of living?
No. Every number here is a published BLS figure for a stated area. Adjusting by a regional price index would produce values BLS never published and that you could not check against the source, so we report the survey as released.
Why is my state missing from the table?
BLS suppresses estimates where the surveyed sample is too small to publish reliably. This occupation has published medians for 51 states, so the rest were withheld rather than being zero.

Source