Commercial Divers Salary and Pay
How much do Commercial Divers make?
Median pay for Commercial Divers is $61,130 a year ($29.39); the mean is $78,110. The occupation employed 3,430 people in May 2024, and its middle band runs from $49,370 to $93,840.
Commercial Divers salary data without the self-reported noise: BLS surveyed the employers, and this page prints the ladder, the states, and the metros exactly as the survey published them.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Every level in the picker is a published BLS figure for Commercial Divers, not a national average. Annual-to-hourly conversions divide by 2,080 hours, the survey's full-time year; top-coded levels use $239,200, the floor BLS prints, so the true figure is higher.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $39,130 | $18.81 |
| 25th percentile | $49,370 | $23.74 |
| Median (50th) | $61,130 | $29.39 |
| 75th percentile | $93,840 | $45.11 |
| 90th percentile | $152,580 | $73.36 |
Percentiles answer the question a single average cannot: where would a given Commercial Divers offer sit among all 3,430 workers doing this job? The survey top-codes at $239,200+ and withholds unreliable cells, shown as n/p in the table.
Employment and concentration
With 3,430 jobs nationally, Commercial Divers make up 0.00% of U.S. employment as BLS measured it in May 2024. The map is uneven: Florida alone holds 570 of those jobs, the top three states hold 34.1%, and the deepest concentration sits in Maine (location quotient 9.62, where 1.00 is the national average). A quotient above 2 usually signals a local industry cluster rather than evenly spread demand.
Pay inside the occupation is wide: $113,450 separates the ends of its ladder. The 90th percentile ($152,580) is 3.9 times the 10th percentile ($39,130), a gap of $113,450 a year. The mean of $78,110 sitting above the median of $61,130 tells you the top end pulls the average up: most workers cluster below the mean, and the high tail is thin.
Pay by state
Sorted by employment, the table below puts Florida first at 570 jobs; sorted by median pay instead, New York would lead at $153,990. Both orderings are printed in one table:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 570 | 0.1 | 2.63 | $64,030 | $52,680 |
| Louisiana | 350 | 0.2 | 8.34 | $56,390 | $48,550 |
| Texas | 250 | 0.0 | 0.80 | $55,050 | $56,340 |
| New York | 200 | 0.0 | 0.94 | $144,310 | $153,990 |
| Connecticut | 160 | 0.1 | 4.25 | $62,750 | $58,170 |
| Maine | 140 | 0.2 | 9.62 | $66,550 | $72,800 |
| Virginia | 120 | 0.0 | 1.30 | $79,570 | $79,090 |
| Washington | 100 | 0.0 | 1.28 | $139,630 | $117,210 |
| Indiana | 60 | 0.0 | 0.81 | $79,840 | $78,680 |
| Wisconsin | 50 | 0.0 | 0.80 | $98,930 | $85,310 |
| Hawaii | 40 | 0.1 | 2.87 | $96,070 | $94,710 |
| California | n/p | n/p | n/p | $98,210 | $61,100 |
| Michigan | n/p | n/p | n/p | $53,540 | $52,360 |
| Missouri | n/p | n/p | n/p | $66,070 | $61,420 |
| New Jersey | n/p | n/p | n/p | $103,810 | $94,820 |
| South Carolina | n/p | n/p | n/p | $57,820 | $48,010 |
| Vermont | n/p | n/p | n/p | $95,210 | $98,610 |
| West Virginia | n/p | n/p | n/p | $54,550 | $55,680 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Commercial Divers stands number 777 by employment and number 391 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations, the group median wage is $59,300 across 51 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 3% more than its group median, and it supplies 0.1% of the group's 6,045,030 jobs. In 10 of the 18 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $61,130, 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
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA is the largest metro employer with 230 jobs, 6.7% of the national total. Below, the biggest employers come first; the pay table after it only counts metros with 500 or more jobs in the occupation, so its leader is a real market and not a statistical artifact.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 230 | $90,280 | $58,800 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 190 | $138,990 | $154,000 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 170 | $69,860 | $62,050 |
| Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA | 140 | $57,730 | $48,610 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | 90 | $79,670 | $58,680 |
| Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | 90 | $78,820 | $75,030 |
| Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | 80 | $62,450 | $58,170 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 60 | $62,980 | $58,490 |
| Jacksonville, FL | 50 | $55,850 | $48,540 |
| Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT | 40 | $68,020 | $60,020 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
Budget arithmetic on the median: $5,094 a month before tax, $2,351 biweekly, $1,176 weekly. Moving from the 25th percentile ($49,370) to the 75th ($93,840) is worth $44,470 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. To turn any of these gross figures into spendable money, run them through the paycheck calculator; to weigh an offer against your current role, use the salary calculator; to test a raise against prices, the raise vs inflation calculator.
To place a real offer: a salary of $67,243 would sit between the median ($61,130) and the 75th percentile ($93,840), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $49,370, is $11,760 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations
The occupations BLS groups with this one, by size: Millwrights, Farm Equipment Mechanics and Service Technicians, Outdoor Power Equipment and Other Small Engine Mechanics, Home Appliance Repairers, Coin, Vending, and Amusement Machine Servicers and Repairers, Mechanical Door Repairers. Every one of the 826 published occupations is indexed on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Commercial Divers make an hour?
The median hourly wage is $29.39, and the mean hourly wage is $37.55, from the May 2024 OEWS estimates. Annual figures for Commercial Divers use the survey's 2,080-hour year where a conversion is needed, which is how the $61,130 annual median and the hourly figures reconcile.
Which state pays Commercial Divers the most?
New York, with a median annual wage of $153,990 across 200 jobs. The full state table on this page ranks every publishing state by employment and shows median and mean side by side.
How big is the Commercial Divers workforce?
3,430 wage and salary workers in May 2024, 0.00% of U.S. employment in the survey. Employment concentrates most in Maine by location quotient (9.62).
How current is this Commercial Divers salary data?
These are the May 2024 OEWS estimates behind the $61,130 median and the 3,430 job count on this page, released by BLS on April 2, 2025 and downloaded on November 5, 2026. OEWS is an employer survey, so those figures describe wages actually paid in this occupation, not advertised ranges.