National Averages

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that there were 368,200 heavy equipment operators in 2009. These workers earned an average salary of $21.24 per hour, or $44,180 per year. Heavy equipment operators in the top 10th percentile of earners made an average of $33.67 per hour, or $70,040 per year, while those in the lowest 10th percentile of earners made an average of $12.60 per hour, or $26,210 per year.
  
  

Most Common Sectors

• The BLS reports that the other specialty trade contractors sector of the industry employed the highest number of heavy equipment operators in 2009. The estimated 90,180 workers in this sector earned an average salary of $21.36 per hour, or $44,430 per year. The second-most common sector, local government, employed about 57,120 of these workers, who earned $18.76 per hour, or $39,010 per year.
  
  

Highest-Paying Sectors

• The general and surgical hospitals sector of the industry paid the highest average wages to heavy equipment operators out of all sectors in 2009, according to the BLS. Equipment operators in this sector earned an average salary of $35.04 an hour, or $72,880 per year. The industry with the second-highest average salary for heavy equipment operators, lessors of real estate, paid a significantly lower average wage of $27.81 an hour or $57,840 per year.
  
  

Geographic Differences

• The BLS reports that heavy equipment operators in Hawaii, Illinois, California, New York and Alaska had the highest average wages out of all states in 2009. Operators in Hawaii, the state with the highest average salary, earned $31.93 per hour, or $66,410 per year. Operators in Alaska, the state with the fifth-highest salary, earned an average of $29.13 an hour, or $60,600 per year.