Salary Information

• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the agency that tracks information on professions, includes solid waste managers in the category "refuse and recyclable material collectors." According to the BLS, the median salary for workers in this category was $32,640 in 2010. The middle 50 percent earned between $24,270 and $41,980 per year.
  
  

Industry Information

• The BLS reports that the top employers for solid waste managers are private waste collection companies, local government, waste treatment and disposal companies, employment services and waste management services. The top-paying industries for the field are the postal service, state and local government, waste treatment and disposal and other support services. Solid waste managers in these industries earned mean wages between $34,020 and $51,110 in 2010 Local government, as well as waste treatment and disposal, are both top payers and top hirers for these positions.
  
  

Regional Information

• The states with the highest employment levels for solid waste managers are California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to the BLS. The top-paying regions for this work are New York, Washington, Illinois, California and Alaska, with annual salaries between $41,620 and $49,600 for 2010. New York and California are on both lists.
  
  

Job Outlook

• The BLS expects job opportunities if this field to decline by about 1 percent between 2008 and 2018. This is significantly lower growth than the 8 percent increase expected for U.S. jobs as a whole. It attributes this sluggish performance to increases in automation that reduce a need for employee head count. However, the BLS also reports that it expects numerous positions to open as people retire or otherwise move out of what is a large field of employment.