Contact lens technician vs lens maker

The differences between contact lens technicians and lens makers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a contact lens technician and a lens maker. Additionally, a lens maker has an average salary of $39,136, which is higher than the $29,708 average annual salary of a contact lens technician.

The top three skills for a contact lens technician include patients, customer service and appointment scheduling. The most important skills for a lens maker are hand tools, FDA, and ISO.

Contact lens technician vs lens maker overview

	Contact Lens Technician	Lens Maker
Yearly salary	$29,708	$39,136
Hourly rate	$14.28	$18.82
Growth rate	2%	2%
Number of jobs	7,585	7,022
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 30%	High School Diploma, 27%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	2	2

Contact lens technician vs lens maker salary

Contact lens technicians and lens makers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Contact Lens Technician	Lens Maker
Average salary	$29,708	$39,136
Salary range	Between $18,000 And $48,000	Between $25,000 And $60,000
Highest paying City	-	-
Highest paying state	-	-
Best paying company	-	-
Best paying industry	-	-

Differences between contact lens technician and lens maker education

There are a few differences between a contact lens technician and a lens maker in terms of educational background:

	Contact Lens Technician	Lens Maker
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 30%	High School Diploma, 27%
Most common major	Business	Information Technology
Most common college	-	-

Contact lens technician vs lens maker demographics

Here are the differences between contact lens technicians' and lens makers' demographics:

	Contact Lens Technician	Lens Maker
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 12.9% Female, 87.1%	Male, 61.1% Female, 38.9%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 3.8% Hispanic or Latino, 21.5% Asian, 9.3% White, 56.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	Black or African American, 5.2% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 15.4% Asian, 10.0% White, 65.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between contact lens technician and lens maker duties and responsibilities

Contact lens technician example responsibilities.

Maintain coating quality using adhesion testing and spectrophotometers, and manage coating hues and reflectance adjustments.
Schedule appointments, insurance filing and pretest patients for exams using various instrumentation.
Greet patients and ensure accurate demographic and insurance information into their electronic chart following HiPPA compliance in a paperless practice.
Handle accounts receivable for Medicaid and Medicare processing and tracking paperwork.

Lens maker example responsibilities.

Serve as an internal auditor on a team form to work towards a goal of achieving ISO [] certification.
Ensure compliance of standard operating procedures, FDA and regulatory standards.
Operate CNC machine to produce, inspect, clean and process contact lens.
Machine detail aerospace parts when CNC machining operations cannot effectively complete.
Calculate requirements, using basic math, geometry and trigonometry.

Contact lens technician vs lens maker skills

Common contact lens technician skills

Patients, 41%
Customer Service, 7%
Appointment Scheduling, 5%
R, 4%
Front Desk, 3%
Eye Exams, 3%

Common lens maker skills

Hand Tools, 48%
FDA, 23%
ISO, 19%
APL, 11%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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