Plate mounter vs preflight technician

The differences between plate mounters and preflight technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a plate mounter and a preflight technician. Additionally, a preflight technician has an average salary of $50,553, which is higher than the $38,369 average annual salary of a plate mounter.

The top three skills for a plate mounter include flexo, tape measure and lean manufacturing. The most important skills for a preflight technician are troubleshoot, customer service, and adobe photoshop.

Plate mounter vs preflight technician overview

	Plate Mounter	Preflight Technician
Yearly salary	$38,369	$50,553
Hourly rate	$18.45	$24.30
Growth rate	-	3%
Number of jobs	156	5,361
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 45%	Bachelor's Degree, 59%
Average age	48	48
Years of experience	4	4

Plate mounter vs preflight technician salary

Plate mounters and preflight technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Plate Mounter	Preflight Technician
Average salary	$38,369	$50,553
Salary range	Between $22,000 And $66,000	Between $35,000 And $71,000
Highest paying City	-	-
Highest paying state	-	-
Best paying company	-	-
Best paying industry	-	-

Differences between plate mounter and preflight technician education

There are a few differences between a plate mounter and a preflight technician in terms of educational background:

	Plate Mounter	Preflight Technician
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 45%	Bachelor's Degree, 59%
Most common major	Graphic Communications	Graphic Design
Most common college	California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo	University of Texas at Austin

Plate mounter vs preflight technician demographics

Here are the differences between plate mounters' and preflight technicians' demographics:

	Plate Mounter	Preflight Technician
Average age	48	48
Gender ratio	Male, 79.8% Female, 20.2%	Male, 75.0% Female, 25.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 3.3% Hispanic or Latino, 18.9% Asian, 7.9% White, 61.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%	Black or African American, 9.0% Unknown, 3.4% Hispanic or Latino, 18.4% Asian, 6.8% White, 61.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%
LGBT Percentage	13%	13%

Differences between plate mounter and preflight technician duties and responsibilities

Plate mounter example responsibilities.

Maintain professional correspondence with pressroom and with prepress department.
Assemble and balance tires for Freightliner trucks.

Preflight technician example responsibilities.

Supervise modernization of prepress department from letterpress to fully electronic and train incoming staff in typesetting and electronic prepress.
Implement pre-flight procedures that eliminate costly re-prints and increase production speed and accuracy.

Plate mounter vs preflight technician skills

Common plate mounter skills

Flexo, 26%
Tape Measure, 24%
Lean Manufacturing, 11%
Press Runs, 11%
Customer Specifications, 6%
Production Schedules, 6%

Common preflight technician skills

Troubleshoot, 21%
Customer Service, 19%
Adobe Photoshop, 17%
Mac, 13%
FTP, 11%
Adobe Creative Suite, 10%