Film Career · Set Decoration
On-Set Dresser
Set Decoration · IATSE craft locals
- Union
- IATSE craft locals
- Day rate
- ~$45–$70/hr
- Experience
- 2–4 yrs
What does an On-Set Dresser do?
The on-set dresser is the set decoration department's representative during shooting, maintaining the dressed set take to take and resetting props and furniture for continuity. When a scene needs a picture swapped or a room aged between story days, it goes through them.
What does an On-Set Dresser make?
- About $45-$70 an hour, or $2,000-$3,400 a week with overtime (Local 44 scale around $42-$48), roughly $70K-$130K a year.
- Overtime, union tier, and market drive the range.
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
On the job
- Maintain set dressing continuity through every take and setup
- Reset furniture and dressing after the crew moves through
- Execute story-day changes and camera-driven adjustments fast
- Bridge set dec and the shooting crew all day
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You can dress a set and match continuity exactly
- You know decorating and set-dressing craft
Soft skills
- You are quick, careful, and physical
- You like being the last hands on a set before the take
Career progression
On-set dresser is a shooting-crew post inside set decoration: dressers who prove calm around camera become the department's on-set presence, and the chair leads naturally toward lead person and set decorator.
A typical path, from entry to the top of the craft. Times are rough and vary by market, luck, and how steadily the work comes.
- Set Dresser· 2-4 yrs
~$50K–$450K+/yr
- On-Set Dresseryou are here· 3-5 yrs
~$70K–$130K/yr
- Set Decorator· peak of the craft
~$100K–$250K/yr
How do you become an On-Set Dresser?
Join a swing gang or dressing crew and demonstrate two things: continuity eyes and set etiquette. The decorator sends to set the dresser who will not be rattled by the AD's clock.
On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by IATSE craft locals contracts.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.