Drafter vs senior drafter

The differences between drafters and senior drafters 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 senior drafter. Additionally, a senior drafter has an average salary of $44,988, 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 senior drafter are autocad, layout drawings, and cad standards.

Drafter vs senior drafter overview

	Drafter	Senior Drafter
Yearly salary	$43,542	$44,988
Hourly rate	$20.93	$21.63
Growth rate	-3%	-3%
Number of jobs	3,968	3,189
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 57%	Associate Degree, 61%
Average age	45	45
Years of experience	12	12

Drafter vs senior drafter salary

Drafters and senior drafters have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Drafter	Senior Drafter
Average salary	$43,542	$44,988
Salary range	Between $33,000 And $56,000	Between $33,000 And $60,000
Highest paying City	Baltimore, MD	-
Highest paying state	Maryland	-
Best paying company	National Grid plc	-
Best paying industry	Professional	-

Differences between drafter and senior drafter education

There are a few differences between a drafter and a senior drafter in terms of educational background:

	Drafter	Senior Drafter
Most common degree	Associate Degree, 57%	Associate Degree, 61%
Most common major	Drafting And Design	Drafting And Design
Most common college	Carnegie Mellon University	Carnegie Mellon University

Drafter vs senior drafter demographics

Here are the differences between drafters' and senior drafters' demographics:

	Drafter	Senior Drafter
Average age	45	45
Gender ratio	Male, 74.7% Female, 25.3%	Male, 75.4% Female, 24.6%
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 senior drafter 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.

Senior drafter example responsibilities.

Manage the design history of 3D part models, assemblies, and drawings using PDM software.
Produce design and construction drawings electrical and HVAC departments for commercial and residential projects per applicable national codes and regulations.
Create BIM design from concept.
Detail and draft structures in Revit.
Maintain an engineering change notice (ECN) system.
Design HVAC and plumbing layouts on existing architectural xrefs.

Drafter vs senior drafter skills

Common drafter skills

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

Common senior drafter skills

Autocad, 25%
Layout Drawings, 7%
CAD Standards, 5%
Engineering Drawings, 4%
Aided Design, 4%
Revit, 4%