Bench hand vs fabrication technician

The differences between bench hands and fabrication technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a bench hand has an average salary of $36,500, which is higher than the $35,582 average annual salary of a fabrication technician.

The top three skills for a bench hand include hand tools, grinders and cranes. The most important skills for a fabrication technician are hand tools, math, and customer service.

Bench hand vs fabrication technician overview

	Bench Hand	Fabrication Technician
Yearly salary	$36,500	$35,582
Hourly rate	$17.55	$17.11
Growth rate	-5%	14%
Number of jobs	5,097	109,734
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 46%	Associate Degree, 29%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	-	-

Bench hand vs fabrication technician salary

Bench hands and fabrication technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Bench Hand	Fabrication Technician
Average salary	$36,500	$35,582
Salary range	Between $26,000 And $50,000	Between $26,000 And $47,000
Highest paying City	-	San Jose, CA
Highest paying state	-	North Dakota
Best paying company	-	Westinghouse Appliances Australia
Best paying industry	-	Finance

Differences between bench hand and fabrication technician education

There are a few differences between a bench hand and a fabrication technician in terms of educational background:

	Bench Hand	Fabrication Technician
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 46%	Associate Degree, 29%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	-	-

Bench hand vs fabrication technician demographics

Here are the differences between bench hands' and fabrication technicians' demographics:

	Bench Hand	Fabrication Technician
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 90.9% Female, 9.1%	Male, 85.1% Female, 14.9%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.2% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 14.3% Asian, 8.8% White, 61.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%	Black or African American, 12.9% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 17.5% Asian, 9.6% White, 55.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between bench hand and fabrication technician duties and responsibilities

Bench hand example responsibilities.

Operate various machines including; hones, lathes and surface grinders.
Execute bench, machine and hand tool work in shaping, fitting and assembling forging dies, jigs and fixtures.
Perform all machining operations necessary to build production machinery and tooling to manufacture a wide selection of aerospace fasteners.
Unload trucks using forklift and overhead crane.
Perform in-house calibration on rulers, calipers, digital indicators and leak tester following the approved calibration procedure.

Fabrication technician example responsibilities.

Use of mig and tig welders, plasma cutter, chop see, band see and drill press.
Lift or move material and finish products using large over head cranes or hoists.
Weld with stick mig flux cor stainless rods.
Form, fabricate and assemble commercial HVAC duct work systems.
Train and operate several pieces of fab equipment, i.e.
Operate laser and turret machines to cut hoods for transformers.

Bench hand vs fabrication technician skills

Common bench hand skills

Hand Tools, 48%
Grinders, 19%
Cranes, 14%
Drill Presses, 10%
Manual Lathes, 6%
Visual Inspections, 2%

Common fabrication technician skills

Hand Tools, 10%
Math, 6%
Customer Service, 6%
CNC, 5%
Calipers, 5%
OSHA, 5%