Match the press to fabric
Choose the press or iron and adjust its settings to suit how much heat the fabric can take.
Career profile
Garment Presser
Pressers use steam, pressure and careful positioning to smooth wrinkles and restore a garment's shape.
Even cleaned clothes may still need more work: lining up fabric, setting creases, and finishing small spots a big pressing machine cannot reach.
A day in the life
Smooth a shirt on the press
Spread the shirt evenly and straighten it so a wrinkle does not get pressed in as a fold.
Iron pleats by hand
Trace an existing pleat with a hand iron or form one shaped as a work order specifies.
Spot missed stains and uneven finishing
Scan the garment for missed stains and uneven spots in the finish before it goes on to inspection.
Quick facts
Learn on the job
United States · 2025
$35,060 a year
United States · May 2025
15.7% decline
United States · 2025–2035
Quick orientation
Preparation, pay & outlook
Preparation
Learn on the jobTypical entry involves short-term workplace training, with no formal educational credential required. Employer requirements vary.
Pay
$35,060 a yearNational median, equivalent to $16.85 an hour, for textile, garment, and related-material pressers.
Outlook
15.7% declineEmployment is projected to shrink during 2025–35, with about 2,200 openings annually across textile, garment, and related-material pressing.
Fit, tradeoffs & changing tools
You might like this if…
- You enjoy seeing a visible result from careful handwork.
- You can repeat a process while still noticing small differences in each garment.
- You like improving your pace without letting the finish get sloppy.
Things to weigh
- Standing and repeating hand and foot movements can make a shift physically tiring.
- Hot equipment brings burn risks, and temperatures around pressing stations can vary.
- Pickup deadlines and same-day orders can put pressure on your pace.
Where AI may help
Some shirt-finishing machines remember settings for different fabrics and styles. Optional mechanisms remove finished shirts and place them on hangers.
What people still lead
You still position garments, select the appropriate program, and notice flaws before the clothes move on.
What we can’t predict yet
How much hand finishing remains will depend on the garments a shop handles and how well its machines finish the awkward details.
Pay in context
Earnings
Use national figures as a reference when comparing an offer’s hourly rate and scheduled hours.
The middle of the pay range
The May 2025 median was $35,060 annually, or $16.85 hourly. This covers textile, garment, and related-material pressers; it is not a starting-pay promise.
The wider spread
The lowest-paid 10% earned $27,180 or less annually ($13.07 hourly); the highest-paid 10% earned $43,050 or more ($20.70 hourly). These are wage percentiles, not beginner and experienced-worker rates.
Workplace pay context
For a historical comparison, May 2023 average hourly pay was $15.42 in drycleaning and laundry services and $15.57 in cut-and-sew clothing manufacturing. These industry averages are not current offers.
Openings despite a decline
Employment is projected to fall 15.7% from 2025 to 2035. About 2,200 openings a year are still projected as workers leave the occupation; that does not guarantee openings near you.
Getting started
Train at a shirt-pressing station
- What the route involves
- Learn to position shirts and operate the shirt press with an experienced worker showing you the process.
- What it can lead to
- Build the skills to run a dedicated shirt-finishing station.
Join a dry cleaner as a trainee presser
- What the route involves
- Train on pressing equipment while learning to finish pants, suits, dresses, and other customer garments.
- What it can lead to
- Prepare for a broader garment mix and the daily deadlines of a dry-cleaning shop.
You can enter through employer training. A degree is not the typical entry requirement; look for jobs that explicitly accept beginners and teach equipment use.
After entry
Career paths
This starts where the entry routes leave off: early work, growing capability, and advancement or specialization.
Get consistent at one station
Learn the station’s controls and finish expectations, then work toward meeting them reliably.
Handle unfamiliar garments
Learn how new fabrics and styles change the finishing method, and plan your work around special orders.
Specialize in detailed finishing
Develop hand-finishing skill for gowns, costumes, or pleated garments that need more individual attention.
Where you can work
Customer-serving dry cleaners
Your garment mix changes with customers’ wardrobes. Special orders and same-day pickup requests shape the sequence of your work.
- Indoors
- Physical demands
Central garment-care production plants
Pressing fits into a larger flow with folding, inspection, and packaging workers. Production goals and repeated equipment movements shape the shift.
- Indoors
- Physical demands
Try it
See whether the job clicks before you commit to the path.
Lay a clean shirt on a table without using heat. Line up its seams, smooth one section, and identify which details would be awkward to press flat. Notice whether this close attention feels satisfying or tedious.
Stay safe: Keep this exercise unheated; industrial pressing equipment requires workplace instruction.
Sources
- O*NET OnLine. 51-6021.00 — Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials. Accessed 2026-10-02.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational projections, 2025–35, and worker characteristics, 2025. Accessed 2026-10-02.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. National employment and wage data, May 2025. Accessed 2026-10-02.
- O*NET OnLine. 2025 wage table for 51-6021.00 — United States and Tennessee. Accessed 2026-10-02.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. May 2023 occupational employment and wages — 51-6021. Accessed 2026-10-02.
- Summit Cleaners. Employment Opportunities — Presser Positions. Accessed 2026-10-02.
- Liberty Cleaners. Careers — Presser Position. Accessed 2026-10-02.
- Sun Country Cleaners. Shirt Presser and Production Team. Accessed 2026-10-02.
- Trevil. TreviTandem shirt finisher. Accessed 2026-10-02.