The Datum Report

Occupation 5317 · Skilled trades occupations

Glaziers, window fabricators and fitters

Half of full-time glaziers, window fabricators and fitters in the UK earn more than £29,436 a year, and half earn less.

Glaziers, window fabricators and fitters make and install pre-glazed wooden, metal or PVC framework, and cut, fit and set glass in windows, doors, shop fronts, and other structural frames.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements. Entry is typically through an apprenticeship in leading to an NVQ/SVQ at level 3.

What the work involves

• examines drawings or specifications to determine job requirements
• scores plain, coloured, safety and ornamental glass with hand cutter and breaks off glass by hand or with pliers
• smooths edges of glass and positions and secures in frame or grooved lead strips
• applies mastic, putty or adhesive between glass and frame and trims off excess with knife
• fixes mirror panels to interior and exterior walls and repairs and replaces broken glass
• sets up and operates machinery to manufacture windows and window frames

Also called

Glass Cutter · Glazier · Installer (double glazing) · Service engineer (windows) · Window fabricator · Window fitter

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for glaziers, window fabricators and fitters, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 7 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Bricklayers · Carpenters and joiners · Construction and building trades n.e.c. · Plumbers and heating and ventilating installers and repairers · Roofers, roof tilers and slaters · Steel erectors · Stonemasons and related trades