Occupation / job
Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators pays $53,340 against $50,020 across all occupations, which is $276 a month ahead. A modest premium, and modest premiums are usually attached to modest requirements — check what this one is attached to.
Employment stands at 41,820. Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators is common enough to be recruited for continuously and specific enough that the experience travels — the combination that makes changing employer a working pay rise.
These trades suit people who want a skill that is portable, credentialed by doing rather than by studying, and demonstrably useful to somebody in every town.
How long it takes to become one of the 41,820 people doing this is not something we have a source for. BLS counts and pays them; it does not record how they got there, and we would rather say so than guess.
Who should not do this
The middle half runs $45,610 to $64,720 — $1,592 a month between the quarters, a 1.4x ratio. Spreads this narrow are usually set by a grade or a scale, so the negotiation you are imagining probably is not available.
The bottom quarter of Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators earns under $45,610, which is within $4,410 of the $50,020 typical American job. An occupation whose 25th percentile is level with the national middle has an unusually forgiving downside.
Avoid it if the cumulative physical wear is not something you have thought about honestly at the age you would be finishing.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 41,820 people employed as Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
Top quarter to bottom quarter is 1.4x. In a band that narrow, $53,340 is a genuinely representative number for Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators and the main variable left is where you live.
In cash terms the middle half of Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators runs $45,610 to $64,720 — $19,110 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $53,340.
The 75th percentile is $64,720. Reaching it from the $53,340 midpoint is $11,380 a year; reaching it from the $45,610 that the bottom quarter of Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators earn is $19,110.
$11,380 separates $53,340 from the $64,720 top quarter, while only $7,730 separates it from $45,610. The range leans upward, which means the middle of Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators has more room above it than a symmetric reading of the median would suggest.
Converted to an hourly rate over a full-time year: $21.92 at the bottom quarter, $25.64 at the midpoint, $31.11 at the top quarter. The typical American job works out at $24.04 on the same basis.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $53,340 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
The hourly number on this page is $53,340 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else