Occupational Employment Statistics

DETAILED OCCUPATION DATA

51-6042 Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders

Occupational Description:
Operate or tend a variety of machines to join, decorate, reinforce, or finish shoes and shoe parts.

Occupational Employment Statistics(OES) Wage Data
First Quarter 2026

Geography	Employment	Emp SE*	Percentiles
Geography	Employment	Emp SE*	Mean	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th
Minnesota	370	20	$18.32/hr	$15.64/hr	$15.64/hr	$18.49/hr	$18.49/hr	$24.07/hr

Leading Industries for Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders

Industry	OES Employment (Statewide)	OES Median Wage (Statewide)
Manufacturing	370	$18.49/hr

Other Regional Data for Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders

Geography	Employment	Median Wage	Projections % Change -10-
Southeast Minnesota	N/A	N/A	N/A
Seven County Mpls-St Paul, MN	N/A	N/A	N/A
Duluth MN-WI MSA	N/A	N/A	N/A
La Crosse WI-MN MSA	N/A	N/A	N/A
Minneapolis-St Paul-Bloomington MN-WI MSA	N/A	N/A	N/A
Southeast Balance of State	N/A	N/A	N/A
Central Minnesota	N/A	N/A	N/A
Northeast Minnesota	N/A	N/A	N/A
Minnesota	370	$18.49/hr	N/A

Related Occupations

Occupations	Employment	Median Wage	Projections % Change -
Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders	N/A	N/A	N/A
Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	670	$28.30/hr	-4.6%
Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand	120	$25.54/hr	-16.7%

Task for Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders

Fill shuttle spools with thread from a machine's bobbin winder by pressing a foot treadle.
Turn screws to regulate size of staples.
Remove and examine shoes, shoe parts, and designs to verify conformance to specifications such as proper embedding of stitches in channels.
Test machinery to ensure proper functioning before beginning production.
Align parts to be stitched, following seams, edges, or markings, before positioning them under needles.
Study work orders or shoe part tags to obtain information about workloads, specifications, and the types of materials to be used.
Turn setscrews on needle bars, and position required numbers of needles in stitching machines.
Hammer loose staples for proper attachment.
Operate or tend machines to join, decorate, reinforce, or finish shoes and shoe parts.
Load hot-melt plastic rod glue through reactivator axles, using wrenches, and switch on reactivators, setting temperature and timers to heat glue to specifications.