Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
United States. Estimated employment 478,090, with pages for 15 metro areas below.
Data released May 2025
BLS OEWS · SOC 47-2073
Fig. 1 — The wage rule
Where you sit in the distribution
Drag the marker, or type a figure
$59,850 · 50th
$42,19010th
$48,68025th
$59,85050th
$77,17075th
$101,09090th
That is the median — half of people in this occupation in the US earn more.
Table 1 — By metro area
Where it pays
Every published Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators page, by median pay. Employment is the BLS estimate for the metro.
| Metro area | Median | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | $95,050 | 11,430 |
| Albany, NY | $82,540 | 1,000 |
| Buffalo, NY | $73,650 | 950 |
| Kiryas Joel, NY | $72,240 | 590 |
| Kingston, NY | $70,370 | 150 |
| Rochester, NY | $65,720 | 910 |
| Syracuse, NY | $63,810 | 700 |
| Midland, TX | $57,900 | 1,150 |
| Beaumont, TX | $56,850 | 1,120 |
| Odessa, TX | $55,430 | 670 |
| Sherman, TX | $53,380 | 180 |
| Dallas, TX | $51,370 | 11,510 |
| Houston, TX | $51,040 | 14,000 |
| Austin, TX | $50,960 | 5,010 |
| Abilene, TX | $49,500 | 230 |
Sources
How this page was made
- Wage data
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. Public domain.
- Employment
- 478,090 employed in this occupation nationally (BLS estimate; excludes the self-employed).
- Occupation
- SOC 47-2073, Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators. Mapped to our taxonomy as operating-engineers-and-other-construction-equipment-operators.
Percentiles are reported exactly as released and are never interpolated between published values. We take no payment from employers, recruiters or anyone else for how any figure is presented.