An auto body technician repairs collision damage to a vehicle's structure, panels and finish: assessing damaged vehicles, realigning frames and structural parts, fitting and welding replacement parts, and preparing repaired surfaces for the paint shop.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies the role as automotive body and related repairers (SOC 49-3021), an occupation of 163,200 U.S. jobs in 2025 that O*NET reports under job titles including collision repair technician, body technician and collision technician.
What is an auto body (collision repair) technician?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts the trade under automotive body and related repairers (SOC 49-3021).
BLS's projections put the occupation at 163,200 jobs in 2025, projected to reach 169,300 by 2035, and its combined body-and-glass repairer group at 185,800 jobs the same year.
O*NET's sample of reported job titles for the occupation includes collision repair technician, auto body repair technician, body technician, collision technician, frame man and refinish technician — one trade, many names.
Whatever the title, the job is the same: realigning frames to manufacturer specifications, fitting and welding replacement parts, and sanding, priming and refinishing damaged panels.
The work is hands-on: BLS lists tasks running from reviewing damage reports and inspecting vehicles for structural damage through realigning frames and chassis, fitting and welding replacement parts, and sanding, buffing and priming repaired surfaces.
A body tech may complete whole jobs alone or work in an assembly-line team; in large shops, BLS describes each person doing a specialized task.
Painting is generally done by painting and coating workers rather than the body tech — the first of several role splits the next section maps.
What does a body tech repair, and what do painters, prep techs and frame techs do instead?
The body tech's work runs from the estimate onward: inspecting for structural damage, removing damaged parts, realigning frames and chassis, hammering out or patching dents, and fitting, attaching and welding replacement parts.
That work takes heavy equipment alongside hand tools.
BLS notes body repairers use pneumatic tools and plasma cutters, heavy-duty hydraulic jacks and common hand tools such as files, pliers, wrenches, hammers and screwdrivers.
Structural damage is the defining case: after a major collision a car's underlying frame can be weakened, and restoring the frame's structural integrity to manufacturer specifications is part of the trade.
Large shops then split the repair flow across specialists, and the boundaries matter when you are choosing which seat to take.
Refinishing belongs to painters.
BLS says painting is generally done by painting and coating workers, who select the paint, apply it and measure coating thickness.
Before anyone sprays, surfaces get prepared: painting and coating workers sand and clean surfaces so dust is not trapped under the paint, and cover parts with tape and paper to keep paint off them.
Where a shop splits that surface work off from spraying, it is a seat of its own: the paint prep technician job.
Where deep structural repair is split into its own seat, that is the frame technician's.
Small dents that need no paint at all go to paintless dent repair — Abra's company history notes it added PDR by 1992 as a low-cost option for small dings and parking-lot rash.
Cameras and sensors cut across all of it: BLS expects repair work to require more time as vehicles carry more of them.
One major operator already sells calibration as a service: Boyd lists mobile diagnostic, scanning and calibration services among its offerings.
Where do body techs work: independent, DRP, MSO and dealership body shops?
Collision shops are where the jobs are: BLS put 60% of automotive body and related repairers in automotive body, paint, interior and glass repair shops in 2025.
Another 16% worked at automobile dealers, 6% in mechanical and electrical repair shops, and 8% were self-employed.
BLS counts those as shares of employment by industry, not of collision repair revenue.
Among collision employers, the big names include multi-shop operators — MSOs — and franchise networks.
The big ones are big by their own reports.
Caliber says it operates more than 1,800 centers across 44 states, offering collision, glass and other automotive services, with a national team of more than 31,000 teammates.
The Boyd Group, Gerber Collision & Glass's parent, reports more than 1,300 collision locations and more than 16,000 employees across 37 states and six Canadian provinces, and describes itself as one of the largest operators of non-franchised collision repair centers in North America.
Crash Champions says it runs more than 650 locations in 38 states and the District of Columbia, and Classic Collision reports over 300 repair facilities nationwide.
On the franchise side, Fix Auto's U.S. site describes a network of franchisee-owned and managed collision shops, part of the Fix Network family of brands.
Driven Brands' FY2025 10-K counted 1,077 collision locations across its CARSTAR, ABRA and Fix Auto brands as of December 27, 2025, almost all franchised, plus 370 franchised Maaco locations.
Dealership body shops are the occupation's second-largest industry bucket at 16% of jobs.
Wherever you land, the physical setting is similar: BLS says body repairers typically work indoors in body shops that are often noisy, with most shops well ventilated so dust and paint fumes can be dispersed.
Job ads add one more abbreviation: DRP, short for direct repair program — in general usage, a shop's repair relationship with an insurer's program.
Our research found no primary source laying out DRP terms, so ask a prospective shop what its DRP status means for workflow and pay.
How do you become a body tech?
Two routes feed the trade: school and the shop floor.
Trade and technical school collision programs typically award certificates after 6 months to 1 year, and some community colleges offer 2-year collision programs.
BLS says the programs combine hands-on practice with technical instruction, usually covering electronics, repair cost estimation and welding.
School seats are limited: TechForce counted only about 325 to 329 institutions offering collision programs nationally, with 5,462 collision program completions in academic year 2023-24, 94% of them certificates rather than degrees.
The other route starts at the shop: BLS says new body repairers usually begin by helping an experienced repairer with basic tasks.
Some are trained in as little as 1 year, but BLS says 2 to 3 years of hands-on training is generally needed to become fully independent.
Employers build their own entry paths too: Caliber's Technician Apprentice Program advertises paid training, industry certifications and hands-on mentorship, and its Changing Lanes program targets active-duty military moving into collision careers.
Certification is not the gate: BLS says certification for body repairers is not required but is recommended, and it can be required for advancement beyond entry level.
Many vehicle and paint manufacturers run their own product certification programs on top of that.
In collision, the names to know are I-CAR's: Platinum is its individual recognition for completing role-specific collision repair training, and Gold Class is its shop-level recognition for businesses that invest in continuous training.
Confirm training and certification details with the issuer
How are body techs paid (flag hours)?
BLS says some repair shops pay technicians hourly while others pay based on the amount of work completed — the flat-rate method.
For body and glass repairers specifically, BLS says the majority of repair shops and auto dealers pay on an incentive basis: a set amount for completing tasks, on top of a guaranteed base salary.
Under that system, earnings depend on the work assigned and the speed at which it is finished.
The BLS pages our research reads give no percentage of technicians paid this way, so no verified share of flag-paid body techs exists.
Those task allowances are the trade's flag hours, and postings quote pay by the flag hour.
One dated posting shows the unit in the wild: a Caliber Collision posting for a Fleet Solutions Body Technician in Chicago quoted up to $27.00 per flag hour — a single posting, not a market rate.
The legal frame matters with any incentive plan.
For task-based (piece-rate) pay, the DOL's piece-rate rule computes the regular rate used for overtime by dividing total weekly piece-rate earnings plus other pay by all hours worked.
The parties may also agree that the piece-rate earnings are intended to cover both productive and nonproductive hours.
Federal law does not override a state law that sets a higher minimum wage or a shorter maximum workweek.
Median earnings: BLS put the May 2025 median for automotive body and related repairers at $54,890 a year.
Industry rows tell the setting story: the median was $55,920 in body, paint, interior and glass repair shops, $52,040 at automobile dealers, and $50,450 in mechanical and electrical repair shops.
The auto body technician salary page pulls the BLS figures together, including state medians where BLS published them.
Confirm pay-plan rules with the wage agencies
Is collision repair a good career?
The demand side has real numbers behind it.
BLS projects employment of automotive body and related repairers to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035 — 163,200 jobs to a projected 169,300 — which the agency calls about as fast as average.
Counting body and glass repairers together, BLS projects about 13,900 openings a year on average over the decade.
The driver is technology: BLS expects more of these workers to be needed because repair work requires more time to work around an increasing number of cameras and sensors.
TechForce Foundation's 2026 Supply-Demand-Opportunity report, a nonprofit analysis built on the prior BLS cycle, estimates collision needs 14,671 new entrants a year against supply covering only 42% of that demand.
The same report puts collision turnover at 60.7%, the highest of the ten technician sectors it tracks — churn that cuts both ways for whoever is hiring and whoever is job hunting.
The realities are physical: BLS says body repairers sometimes work in awkward and cramped positions and the work can be physically demanding.
Hours flex with workload: most automotive body and glass repairers work full time, and overtime, including evenings and weekends, is common when shops have a backlog.
Seasonality exists too: Driven Brands' FY2025 10-K says demand for collision repair is lower outside the winter months, when collisions are less common due to better driving conditions.
Pay ranges widely: from under $36,910 for the lowest 10% to over $87,940 for the highest 10% of earners (BLS, May 2025).
If the trade fits, the listings show what shops are asking for right now.
Find auto body technician jobs
Search more than one title: O*NET's sample of reported titles for the occupation runs from auto body repair technician and body technician to collision repair technician, collision technician, frame man and refinish technician.
Independent collision shops, MSOs, franchise networks and dealership body shops all employ the same core trade.
Browse auto body technician jobs to see what shops are posting today.
This page is career information, not legal, tax or pay advice. Pay figures are BLS's May 2025 Occupational Outlook Handbook releases; wage-and-hour rules are administered by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division alongside state labor departments — confirm specifics with them.