Drafter vs draftsman/designer

The differences between drafters and draftsman/designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a drafter and a draftsman/designer. Additionally, a draftsman/designer has an average salary of $52,529, which is higher than the $43,542 average annual salary of a drafter.

The top three skills for a drafter include layout drawings, aided design and revit. The most important skills for a draftsman/designer are design layouts, solidworks, and shop drawings.

Drafter vs draftsman/designer overview

	Drafter	Draftsman/Designer
Yearly salary	$43,542	$52,529
Hourly rate	$20.93	$25.25
Growth rate	-3%	-3%
Number of jobs	3,968	47,341
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 57%	Associate Degree, 51%
Average age	45	45
Years of experience	12	12

Drafter vs draftsman/designer salary

Drafters and draftsman/designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Drafter	Draftsman/Designer
Average salary	$43,542	$52,529
Salary range	Between $33,000 And $56,000	Between $30,000 And $89,000
Highest paying City	Baltimore, MD	Washington, DC
Highest paying state	Maryland	New Jersey
Best paying company	National Grid plc	TalentBurst
Best paying industry	Professional	Technology

Differences between drafter and draftsman/designer education

There are a few differences between a drafter and a draftsman/designer in terms of educational background:

	Drafter	Draftsman/Designer
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 57%	Associate Degree, 51%
Most common major	Drafting And Design	Drafting And Design
Most common college	Carnegie Mellon University	Carnegie Mellon University

Drafter vs draftsman/designer demographics

Here are the differences between drafters' and draftsman/designers' demographics:

	Drafter	Draftsman/Designer
Average age	45	45
Gender ratio	Male, 74.7% Female, 25.3%	Male, 92.2% Female, 7.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 7.0% White, 72.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 7.0% White, 72.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between drafter and draftsman/designer duties and responsibilities

Drafter example responsibilities.

Manage and supervise other draftsmen.
Draft 2D and 3D mechanical, electrical and plumbing designs in Revit and AutoCAD base on MEP's drafting standards.
Position include adding a new finish edge sketch to existing product and DXF new drawing out to AutoCAD for CNC machining.
Create SolidWorks 3D drawings of customer files.
Prepare 3-D drawings to be insert into PowerPoint presentations.
Utilize GPS unit and software to survey land areas for projects.

Draftsman/designer example responsibilities.

Manage and supervise other draftsmen.
Assist with structural steel detailing, machine design, CNC graphics and ceramics machine design projects.
Detail preliminary design drawings to create BOM's, production use shop layouts, and specific details.
Travele to various work sites to dimension and sketch details of the projects.
Develop and maintain current Revit templates for consistency and overall visual quality of projects.
Design and draft building components from red lines create by MEP engineers with revit software.

Drafter vs draftsman/designer skills

Common drafter skills

Layout Drawings, 8%
Aided Design, 7%
Revit, 7%
Auto CAD, 6%
Engineering Drawings, 4%
Sketch, 4%

Common draftsman/designer skills

Design Layouts, 16%
Solidworks, 10%
Shop Drawings, 5%
R, 4%
HVAC, 4%
Customer Specifications, 3%