Bridge and Lock Tenders Salary and Pay
How much do Bridge and Lock Tenders make?
Bridge and Lock Tenders pay a median of $58,490 a year in the BLS May 2024 survey, with a mean of $56,520 across 2,720 counted jobs. Half of all workers in the occupation earn between $43,700 and $69,530.
One page for the whole Bridge and Lock Tenders pay distribution: national ladder first, then all 22 state rows and the metro rankings, every figure from BLS OEWS May 2024.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Hourly figures use the BLS full-time convention of 2,080 hours a year. The converter loads this occupation's own ladder, median $58,490 first; type any offer into the custom box to price it against the same year.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $32,690 | $15.72 |
| 25th percentile | $43,700 | $21.01 |
| Median (50th) | $58,490 | $28.12 |
| 75th percentile | $69,530 | $33.43 |
| 90th percentile | $74,400 | $35.77 |
The five rows are five different workers in the same occupation, from the 10th percentile ($32,690) to the 90th ($74,400). BLS suppresses cells that fail its reliability rules (n/p here) and caps the highest wages at $239,200+ a year or $115.00+ an hour; in this ladder that top code appears at the very top rows only.
Employment and concentration
With 2,720 jobs nationally, Bridge and Lock Tenders make up 0.00% of U.S. employment as BLS measured it in May 2024. The map is uneven: Louisiana alone holds 350 of those jobs, the top three states hold 31.6%, and the deepest concentration sits in Louisiana (location quotient 10.51, where 1.00 is the national average). A quotient above 2 usually signals a local industry cluster rather than evenly spread demand.
Read the ladder as a career path in numbers: $43,700 at the 25th percentile, $58,490 at the middle, $69,530 at the 75th. The full 10-to-90 range runs $41,710, a ratio of 2.3 to 1. Where a specific job offer lands on that range says more about the role's level than the occupation's headline median does.
Pay by state
Sorted by employment, the table below puts Louisiana first at 350 jobs; sorted by median pay instead, Washington would lead at $75,920. Both orderings are printed in one table:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louisiana | 350 | 0.2 | 10.51 | $44,830 | $35,870 |
| Illinois | 290 | 0.0 | 2.69 | $73,490 | $69,530 |
| New York | 220 | 0.0 | 1.33 | $49,340 | $51,340 |
| Florida | 180 | 0.0 | 1.02 | $43,300 | $42,470 |
| Pennsylvania | 120 | 0.0 | 1.08 | $66,440 | $67,500 |
| Ohio | 100 | 0.0 | 1.05 | $55,590 | $56,080 |
| Wisconsin | 100 | 0.0 | 1.96 | $58,820 | $55,530 |
| Indiana | 90 | 0.0 | 1.53 | $54,750 | $47,670 |
| Kentucky | 90 | 0.0 | 2.51 | $59,860 | $60,780 |
| California | 70 | 0.0 | 0.22 | $64,950 | $57,750 |
| Minnesota | 70 | 0.0 | 1.46 | $69,040 | $72,960 |
| Texas | 70 | 0.0 | 0.28 | $55,940 | $59,300 |
| Alabama | 60 | 0.0 | 1.49 | $67,390 | $68,000 |
| Iowa | 60 | 0.0 | 2.11 | $68,780 | $70,140 |
| Michigan | 60 | 0.0 | 0.80 | $59,260 | $56,260 |
| West Virginia | 60 | 0.1 | 5.17 | $65,660 | $65,460 |
| Mississippi | 50 | 0.0 | 2.31 | $62,460 | $73,240 |
| Washington | 50 | 0.0 | 0.77 | $72,820 | $75,920 |
| Massachusetts | 40 | 0.0 | 0.67 | $52,170 | $53,310 |
| Missouri | 40 | 0.0 | 0.80 | $68,730 | $72,700 |
| Tennessee | 40 | 0.0 | 0.66 | $62,650 | $65,060 |
| North Carolina | n/p | n/p | n/p | $35,740 | $33,970 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Bridge and Lock Tenders stands number 794 by employment and number 431 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Transportation and Material Moving Occupations, the group median wage is $52,310 across 50 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 12% more than its group median, and it supplies 0.0% of the group's 13,645,590 jobs. In 12 of the 22 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $58,490, which is the single best quick test of whether this occupation's pay is set nationally or locally: a high count means local markets regularly outbid the national figure.
Metropolitan areas: where the jobs and the pay sit
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ is the largest metro employer with 130 jobs, 4.8% of the national total. The first table ranks metros by employment; the second ranks them by mean pay among metros with at least 500 jobs in the occupation, because a three-person metro can top a pay table by accident.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 130 | $54,530 | $52,870 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | 120 | $77,370 | $70,240 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | 110 | $66,260 | $67,500 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 60 | $41,780 | $38,360 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 50 | $50,180 | $49,620 |
| Baton Rouge, LA | 40 | $57,660 | $64,730 |
| Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL | 40 | $67,910 | $69,530 |
| New Orleans-Metairie, LA | 40 | $61,060 | $68,430 |
| Cleveland, OH | 30 | $43,440 | $43,700 |
| St. Louis, MO-IL | 30 | $73,440 | $74,090 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
The median Bridge and Lock Tenders paycheck, gross, is $2,250 every two weeks on an annual $58,490, which is $4,874 a month and $1,125 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($43,700) to the 75th ($69,530) is worth $25,830 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. Gross is a starting point, not a budget: the paycheck calculator nets it down by state, an offer comparison lives in the salary calculator, and the raise vs inflation calculator separates a real raise from a nominal one.
To place a real offer: a salary of $64,339 would sit between the median ($58,490) and the 75th percentile ($69,530), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $43,700, is $14,790 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Transportation and Material Moving Occupations
The occupations BLS groups with this one, by size: Shuttle Drivers and Chauffeurs, Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity, Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors, Parking Attendants, Flight Attendants, Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers. Every one of the 826 published occupations is indexed on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Bridge and Lock Tenders make?
The median annual wage is $58,490 and the mean is $56,520 in the BLS OEWS May 2024 estimates. The middle half of workers earn between $43,700 and $69,530 a year.
Which state pays Bridge and Lock Tenders the most?
By median annual wage, Washington leads the state table at $75,920, based on 50 jobs in that state. By mean wage and by headcount the leaders can differ, so the state table on this page shows all three measures side by side.
How many Bridge and Lock Tenders are there in the United States?
BLS counted 2,720 wage and salary workers in this occupation in May 2024, 0.00% of all U.S. employment in the survey. The largest state employer is Louisiana with 350 jobs.
What do the OEWS percentiles mean for Bridge and Lock Tenders?
They mark points in this occupation's pay distribution. One worker in ten earns $32,690 or less and one in ten earns $74,400 or more; the median, $58,490, is the wage of the worker exactly in the middle of the 2,720 counted jobs.