Cut out a cracked windshield, bond in a new one, and leave the car as strong as it was before.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $47,630 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $35,390 at the lower end to about $70,650 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
Up to 1 year, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
From nothing up to about $1,600, depending on the route, for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a license, certificate or registration in Connecticut. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$47,630
Bottom tenth
$35,390
Top tenth
$70,650
The national median is $47,630 a year. The bottom tenth earn $35,390 or less and the top tenth $70,650 or more, in 2025 figures. Many shops pay a base wage plus a piece rate for every job.
$17.01 to $19.28 an hour
What the bottom tenth to bottom quarter of automotive glass installers earn, 2025
Trainees riding along with an experienced technician usually start here. Shops train you themselves. You are paid from day one.
$63,880 a year
The median in Connecticut, the highest of any state
New Jersey ($61,040) and North Carolina ($60,710) come next. Georgia is the lowest, at $36,430. Experienced technicians, including mobile ones who drive to the customer, are at this end. Hail season brings a rush of work.
Roughly, all in
Nothing to $1,600
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Most people are hired with a high school diploma and trained on the job, paid from the first day, and the shop supplies the big equipment, so the low end is genuinely nothing. The high end is your own set of hand tools plus the Auto Glass Safety Council certification test at about $39 a sitting. You can enter this job with no tuition and no debt at all.
You can enter this job with no tuition and no debt at all.
A company van and fuel
Mobile technicians drive a stocked van and often start the day from home.
Health insurance and paid time off
Standard at national chains, less certain at small independent shops.
A 401(k) retirement plan
Usually with a small employer match at the bigger companies.
Storm overtime
One hail storm can create weeks of overtime across a whole state.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
No school required. You are hired first and trained on the job.
High school diploma or GED (General Educational Development test)
Grade 12
Shop class helps. A clean driving record matters more than your grades, because you will be insured to drive a company van.
Get hired as a trainee
Weeks
National chains and independent shops both hire people with no experience at all.
Ride along and learn
A few weeks to a year
You start by helping, then cut out and set glass under supervision. Adhesive handling and cure times are the serious part.
Get certified
After training
The Auto Glass Safety Council certifies technicians against the American National Standards Institute safety standard for auto glass replacement. Registered member shops require it.
Add calibration work
1 to 3 years in
Learning to recalibrate the cameras behind the windshield is a skill shops look for.
Automotive or shop class
Hand skills and comfort around a car.
Math
Measuring, pricing jobs and reading a work order.
English
You explain cure times and insurance paperwork to customers all day.
Business
Useful if you want your own mobile unit later.
Only Connecticut licenses auto glass work, with a state license or a registered apprentice card. Everywhere else what governs the job is a safety standard: the American National Standards Institute standard for auto glass replacement, written by the Auto Glass Safety Council. Shops that register with the council must follow it and must have their technicians certified. A badly bonded windshield can let a roof fold in a rollover, or let the passenger airbag push the glass out instead of catching the passenger, so the standard is not paperwork.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Camera and sensor recalibration
The camera that runs lane keeping and automatic braking sits behind the windshield and must be re-aimed after a replacement. Shops charge for it as a separate service.
Auto Glass Safety Council certification
The recognized credential in the trade, taken as a written test.
Truck and heavy equipment glass
Buses, tractors and construction machines, with less competition.
Chip and crack repair
Quick jobs, often covered by the customer's insurance.
A clean driving record
You have to be insurable on a company vehicle.
Customer service
Most of your day is in someone's driveway or office parking lot. Shops promote the technicians customers ask for by name.
A second language
Useful in most large markets.
Basic body shop knowledge
Trim clips, rust and damaged pinch welds are part of the job.
Mobile auto glass is a business you can start with little: a van, tools, adhesive and an account with a glass distributor. The hard part is not the work, it is the money. Most jobs are paid by an insurance company, and insurers steer customers to shops in their network, so getting onto those networks is the real barrier to a one-van business.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
You get a route in the morning: four to seven jobs at homes, offices and parking lots. Each one means protecting the paint, cutting out the old adhesive, lifting the glass, priming the frame, laying a clean unbroken bead and setting the new glass square the first time. Then photos for the insurer, the paperwork, and telling the customer how long to wait before driving. In hot states you chase shade. In cold ones the adhesive takes far longer to cure.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
A bonded windshield is part of the car's structure. In a rollover it helps stop the roof crushing, and in a frontal crash it backstops the passenger airbag so the bag catches the passenger instead of pushing the glass out. That is why the adhesive bead matters more than the glass.
O*NET OnLine (the Department of Labor's occupation database) counted about 22,600 automotive glass installers and repairers in 2025. It projects faster than average growth to 2035, with about 1,300 openings a year.
The windshield is laminated: two sheets of glass with a plastic layer in between, so it cracks but stays in one piece. Side and rear windows are usually tempered, so they break into small blunt cubes instead of shards.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Vehicles and equipment first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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