OPERATING ENGINEER
MEDIAN PAY (BLS 2024)
Operating Engineers nationwide earn a median of $29.63/hr per the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS 2024 survey. 469,330 operating engineers employed across the U.S. See the state-by-state breakdown below — the highest-paying states often run 30%+ over the national median.
$29.63/hr median · $61,627 annualized (40 hr/wk × 52 wk)
Employment-weighted estimate from 50-state BLS OEWS data (the official BLS national row isn't in our dataset yet). State medians below are real BLS figures.
STATE-BY-STATE MEDIAN
BLS · sorted highest first| State | Median /hr | Top 10% /hr | Employed | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | $50.69 | $61.93 | 1,740 | VIEW |
| Illinois | $46.62 | $57.79 | 11,690 | VIEW |
| California | $42.85 | $63.08 | 36,040 | VIEW |
| New Jersey | $40.47 | $62.55 | 6,450 | VIEW |
| New York | $38.59 | $75.91 | 14,700 | VIEW |
| Washington | $38.07 | $59.18 | 9,070 | VIEW |
| Minnesota | $37.78 | $46.42 | 8,290 | VIEW |
| Connecticut | $36.87 | $50.72 | 2,810 | VIEW |
| Rhode Island | $36.55 | $46.65 | 850 | VIEW |
| Alaska | $36.06 | $49.78 | 3,170 | VIEW |
| Massachusetts | $35.00 | $59.93 | 10,360 | VIEW |
| Nevada | $34.99 | $55.19 | 5,760 | VIEW |
| Wisconsin | $34.93 | $46.23 | 8,320 | VIEW |
| Indiana | $34.79 | $44.67 | 11,230 | VIEW |
| District of Columbia | $33.20 | $44.71 | 560 | VIEW |
| Oregon | $32.79 | $51.46 | 5,450 | VIEW |
| Wyoming | $30.56 | $41.54 | 3,880 | VIEW |
| New Hampshire | $30.18 | $42.52 | 1,530 | VIEW |
| North Dakota | $30.17 | $47.64 | 4,690 | VIEW |
| Michigan | $30.07 | $43.03 | 9,420 | VIEW |
| Ohio | $30.01 | $45.49 | 16,510 | VIEW |
| Colorado | $29.60 | $37.20 | 12,050 | VIEW |
| Iowa | $29.43 | $40.45 | 5,440 | VIEW |
| Maryland | $29.14 | $38.04 | 6,470 | VIEW |
| Montana | $28.91 | $37.36 | 3,610 | VIEW |
| Missouri | $28.87 | $43.57 | 8,750 | VIEW |
| Arizona | $28.80 | $37.28 | 13,520 | VIEW |
| Utah | $28.73 | $35.21 | 6,320 | VIEW |
| Idaho | $28.43 | $37.97 | 4,090 | VIEW |
| Pennsylvania | $28.16 | $45.60 | 20,680 | VIEW |
| Nebraska | $27.52 | $34.93 | 3,180 | VIEW |
| Kentucky | $27.43 | $38.97 | 7,020 | VIEW |
| South Dakota | $27.27 | $33.78 | 2,080 | VIEW |
| Delaware | $27.23 | $47.88 | 1,190 | VIEW |
| Vermont | $27.05 | $35.18 | 1,160 | VIEW |
| Maine | $26.53 | $36.32 | 1,980 | VIEW |
| Virginia | $25.11 | $35.48 | 11,280 | VIEW |
| Kansas | $24.33 | $38.35 | 6,850 | VIEW |
| West Virginia | $24.04 | $38.87 | 7,940 | VIEW |
| Texas | $23.87 | $31.60 | 55,290 | VIEW |
| Louisiana | $23.87 | $35.29 | 7,230 | VIEW |
| New Mexico | $23.62 | $32.50 | 5,000 | VIEW |
| Tennessee | $23.59 | $32.62 | 10,190 | VIEW |
| North Carolina | $23.51 | $29.90 | 15,890 | VIEW |
| Florida | $23.45 | $42.69 | 29,420 | VIEW |
| South Carolina | $22.83 | $29.34 | 8,430 | VIEW |
| Oklahoma | $22.69 | $30.31 | 6,690 | VIEW |
| Alabama | $22.54 | $29.44 | 9,640 | VIEW |
| Georgia | $22.30 | $29.56 | 15,720 | VIEW |
| Mississippi | $22.13 | $31.45 | 4,150 | VIEW |
| Arkansas | $21.71 | $27.75 | 5,550 | VIEW |
TOP-PAYING METROS
DAVIS-BACON PREVAILING WAGES
LOOK UP DIRECTFederal construction work (LNG terminals, military bases, GSA, VA, federal infrastructure) uses Davis-Bacon prevailing wage determinations as a legal wage floor — base + fringe benefits, set per county per construction type. If you're on a federally-funded project paying below the WD, the contractor is out of compliance and you can file a WH-3.
Rates change frequently and are county-specific, so we link direct instead of caching stale numbers. Look up the active Wage Determination for your job at sam.gov/wage-determinations or dol.gov/whd/government-contracts.
Anonymous by default. The next hand reads what you post.
16 other trades. State medians + Davis-Bacon + per diem in one spot.