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Boston Career Explorer

Installation, Maintenance, and Repair

Tire Repairers and Changers

Repair and replace tires.

Also called: Alignment Technician (Alignment Tech), Lube Technician (Lube Tech), Service Technician (Service Tech), Tire Alignment Technician (Tire Alignment Tech), Tire Changer, Tire Installer

Median pay in Greater Boston
$36,950
$17.77/hr
Jobs in Greater Boston
810
Massachusetts 2024–2034
+7.5%
160 openings a year
Typical U.S. entry requirement
High school diploma or equivalent
plus Short-term on-the-job training

Greater Boston: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, May 2025. Growth and openings: Massachusetts statewide projection.

Pay range in Greater Boston

Yearly pay in Greater Boston by percentile
10th25thMedian75th90th
$36,620$36,760$36,950$39,900$47,830

10% of workers earn less than the first figure and 10% earn more than the last.

What you’d do

  • Unbolt and remove wheels from vehicles, using lug wrenches or other hand or power tools.
  • Place wheels on balancing machines to determine counterweights required to balance wheels.
  • Identify tire size and ply and inflate tires accordingly.
  • Raise vehicles, using hydraulic jacks.
  • Reassemble tires onto wheels.
  • Glue tire patches over ruptures in tire casings, using rubber cement.

AI and this job

AI exposure: how much of this job’s work AI tools can do or help with, based on national research. It is not a forecast of job loss.

Lower exposure4 of 100

The index averages three national research measures, each shown as a percentile of all jobs:

  • AIOE 4
  • Language-model AIOE 4
  • GPTs-are-GPTs 3

Observed AI use today: Little or none (Anthropic Economic Index)

AI exposure for this job is low, and observed AI use is little or none. Tire repair is mostly hands-on work, like removing wheels, raising vehicles, and mounting tires. AI tools may help a little with looking up tire sizes or reading balancing machine results, but they do not do the physical work.

Likely to change

  • Looking up tire sizes and specifications
  • Reading balancing machine results

Still relies on people

  • Removing and mounting wheels by hand
  • Raising vehicles safely with jacks

Written with AI from the data on this page. Check with a career coach before making a decision.

Next steps from here

Related jobs that build on what you already do.

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    You already work around vehicles and use hand and power tools. This job also offers short-term on-the-job training and slightly higher Boston pay.

    Pay difference
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    Using tools and checking that parts line up carries over. This apprenticeship-based trade has much higher Boston median pay.

    Pay difference
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Training near Boston

College and school programs in the Boston metro area that lead to this job, with 2023-24 completions (IPEDS).

No college programs near Boston map to this job. Many people enter through on-the-job training or apprenticeship.

Talk to a career coach at the Office of Workforce Development about apprenticeships and City partner programs.

Related occupations

Talk to a career coach

A coach at the Office of Workforce Development can help you plan your next step, and connect you with training, apprenticeships and City partner programs that are not listed here.

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