Data checked · source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics
What equipment operators charge per hour in the US
The wage numbers below are US government data. The billed rates are our estimate built on top of them, using a formula we publish in full.
The median equipment operator in the United States earned $28.78 an hour in May 2025. A homeowner or building owner typically sees a billed rate of roughly $64–$92 an hour, because the shop also has to cover payroll taxes, insurance, vehicles, and profit.
Why the billed rate is not the wage
People often compare a technician's wage to their invoice and assume the shop is gouging them. The gap is real, and most of it is not profit.
A shop pays the wage, then payroll taxes, workers' compensation, liability insurance, health coverage, a truck, fuel, tools, parts inventory, a dispatcher, software, and the hours the technician spends driving rather than working. Those costs land on the billed hour.
We model it like this, and you can check our arithmetic:
Billed rate = wage × 1.3 (labor burden) × 1.7–2.45 (overhead and profit)
That works out to 2.21× to 3.19× the wage. For the US median equipment operator wage of $28.78, that is $64 to $92 an hour. Small owner-operators land near the bottom. Large shops with dispatchers, financing and warranties land near the top.
The multiplier is our published assumption, not a government figure. We explain where it comes from and what would change it on the methodology page.
US wage spread for equipment operators, May 2025
| Percentile | Hourly wage | Typical billed rate |
|---|---|---|
| 25th | $23.40 | $52–$75 |
| 50th — median | $28.78 | $64–$92 |
| 75th | $37.10 | $82–$118 |
Wages: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, SOC 47-2073 — Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators, May 2025. Billed rates are FieldPricing estimates.
Equipment operator rates by metro area
Wages for the same trade vary by more than 2.6× across US metro areas. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont pays the most in our sample at $59.97 an hour; Oklahoma City pays the least at $23.41. The index column compares each metro to the national median, so 120% means wages there run 20% above the US figure.
| Metro area | Median wage | vs US | Typical billed rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $59.97 | 208% | $133–$191 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $59.78 | 208% | $132–$191 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $49.57 | 172% | $110–$158 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $46.04 | 160% | $102–$147 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $45.70 | 159% | $101–$146 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $44.66 | 155% | $99–$142 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | $44.06 | 153% | $97–$141 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $40.23 | 140% | $89–$128 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $40.07 | 139% | $89–$128 |
| St. Louis, MO-IL | $39.56 | 137% | $87–$126 |
| Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN | $39.51 | 137% | $87–$126 |
| Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI | $38.19 | 133% | $84–$122 |
| Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | $38.00 | 132% | $84–$121 |
| Columbus, OH | $37.96 | 132% | $84–$121 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $37.85 | 132% | $84–$121 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | $36.99 | 129% | $82–$118 |
| Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | $36.89 | 128% | $82–$118 |
| Providence-Warwick, RI-MA | $33.61 | 117% | $74–$107 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | $32.76 | 114% | $72–$105 |
| Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN | $32.19 | 112% | $71–$103 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | $32.12 | 112% | $71–$102 |
| Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO | $30.81 | 107% | $68–$98 |
| Kansas City, MO-KS | $30.80 | 107% | $68–$98 |
| Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV | $30.73 | 107% | $68–$98 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | $30.07 | 104% | $66–$96 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | $29.96 | 104% | $66–$96 |
| Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN | $29.76 | 103% | $66–$95 |
| Salt Lake City-Murray, UT | $29.69 | 103% | $66–$95 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $29.64 | 103% | $66–$95 |
| Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | $29.20 | 101% | $65–$93 |
| New Orleans-Metairie, LA | $28.00 | 97% | $62–$89 |
| Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN | $26.94 | 94% | $60–$86 |
| Richmond, VA | $26.58 | 92% | $59–$85 |
| Memphis, TN-MS-AR | $25.90 | 90% | $57–$83 |
| Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | $25.03 | 87% | $55–$80 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | $24.91 | 87% | $55–$79 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | $24.70 | 86% | $55–$79 |
| Albuquerque, NM | $24.59 | 85% | $54–$78 |
| Raleigh-Cary, NC | $24.57 | 85% | $54–$78 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $24.54 | 85% | $54–$78 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | $24.53 | 85% | $54–$78 |
| Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX | $24.50 | 85% | $54–$78 |
| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | $24.46 | 85% | $54–$78 |
| Charleston-North Charleston, SC | $24.35 | 85% | $54–$78 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | $24.18 | 84% | $53–$77 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | $23.77 | 83% | $53–$76 |
| Jacksonville, FL | $23.52 | 82% | $52–$75 |
| San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | $23.44 | 81% | $52–$75 |
| Oklahoma City, OK | $23.41 | 81% | $52–$75 |
49 metro areas. Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 47-2073. Metros where BLS suppressed the figure are omitted rather than estimated.
Why San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont pays 156% more than Oklahoma City
Three things move a trade wage more than anything else: local cost of living, whether the metro's construction market is unionised, and how much competing work is bidding for the same people. A equipment operator in a high-cost coastal metro is not more skilled than one in the Midwest. The wage follows what it costs to live there and what else that person could be doing instead.
For customers this matters in a specific way. The labour half of a quote scales with local wages; the material half mostly does not. A job that is 60% materials will look far more similar across the country than a job that is mostly labour. Excavation, grading, trenching, and site prep sit at different points on that scale, which is why some quotes travel and some do not.
How to use these numbers
Two honest warnings before you take a quote apart with this page.
An hourly rate is not a job price. Most residential work for excavation, grading, trenching, and site prep is quoted flat-rate, not hourly. The shop prices the task, not the clock. This page tells you whether the labor component of a quote is plausible for your area — it does not tell you what a specific job should cost.
A minimum charge is normal. Most shops bill a one to two hour minimum plus a trip or diagnostic fee, often $57–$123 before any work starts. A short visit will not cost one hour of the rate above.
What this page is good for: sanity-checking a rate someone quoted you, comparing what you are paying against your own metro, and understanding why the same job costs noticeably more in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont than in Oklahoma City.
Where these numbers come from
- Wages — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release, retrieved through the BLS public API on August 6, 2026. This is US federal government data and is in the public domain.
- Occupation definition — Standard Occupational Classification 47-2073.
- Billed-rate multiplier — FieldPricing model. Published in full on our methodology page so you can disagree with it.
We update wages once a year when BLS publishes, and we say on every page when we last checked. If you think a number here is wrong, tell us — we log every correction with the date.