Average Salary

• For the purposes of its May 2010 national employment survey, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics classified sports photographers alongside photographers of other specialisms, such as portraitists and photojournalists. It reported that the mean annual salary across the profession was $35,980. This equates to $17.30 an hour, $692 per week and $2,998 a month. Earners within the top 10 percent bracket received salaries in excess of $63,400, while their colleagues in the corresponding bottom bracket earned less than $17,350.
  
  

Salary by Industry

• The bureau's survey revealed that the vast majority of photographers, including sports specialists, worked within professional, scientific and technical services. This may mean working freelance or for a photo agency. The bureau gave the mean yearly salary for this sector of the industry as $32,630. Photographers working for newspaper, periodical, book and directory publishers earned a mean wage of $40,580, while those teaching in colleges, universities and professional schools received $43,810.
  
  

Salary by Geography

• Wage comparison website SalaryExpert.com analyzed pay rates for sports photographers in some large U.S. cities. It reported that wage levels were highest in Los Angeles and New York, averaging $93,119 and $83,751, respectively. Rates were comparable between Charlotte and Houston -- $51,448 and $49,637, respectively -- while Orlando was among the least lucrative locations at just $31,442. The bureau listed District of Columbia and Connecticut as the states in which, across all industry sectors, a photographer was likely to receive the best wages with mean salaries of $56,110 and $53,810, respectively. In contrast, Missouri was reported at a mean of $26,310.
  
  

Prospects

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment opportunities for photographers of all kinds, including sports photographers, to increase by approximately 12 percent over the decade from 2008 to 2018. This is roughly in line with projections for the country as a whole, put at somewhere between 7 and 13 percent over the same period. The area in which employment growth is likely to be highest is Internet and digital image production. As such, sports photographers should continue to be well-compensated for their images, although the bureau cautions that the popularity of the profession as a career choice means that individuals are likely to face keen competition for vacancies.