Continuous Mining Machine Operators Salary and Pay
How much do Continuous Mining Machine Operators make?
Median pay for Continuous Mining Machine Operators is $63,380 a year ($30.47); the mean is $63,920. The occupation employed 14,340 people in May 2024, and its middle band runs from $50,850 to $76,850.
One page for the whole Continuous Mining Machine Operators pay distribution: national ladder first, then all 31 state rows and the metro rankings, every figure from BLS OEWS May 2024.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Conversions use 12 months, 26 biweekly periods, 52 weeks, and 2,080 hours. No level in this occupation's ladder reaches the BLS top code, so every figure the converter shows is a published estimate rather than a floor.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $41,450 | $19.93 |
| 25th percentile | $50,850 | $24.45 |
| Median (50th) | $63,380 | $30.47 |
| 75th percentile | $76,850 | $36.95 |
| 90th percentile | $84,420 | $40.59 |
Percentiles answer the question a single average cannot: where would a given Continuous Mining Machine Operators offer sit among all 14,340 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
BLS counted 14,340 Continuous Mining Machine Operators jobs in May 2024, which is 0.01% of all U.S. employment in the survey. Work is most concentrated in West Virginia, where the location quotient is 12.99, meaning the occupation holds 12.99 times its national share of local jobs. Arizona employs the most people outright, 2,190 of them, and the three largest state employers together account for 33.6% of the national total.
One in ten workers in this field earns $41,450 or less, and one in ten earns $84,420 or more, so the top-to-bottom ratio is 2.0 to 1 and the annual gap is $42,970. The mean ($63,920) versus median ($63,380) comparison shows a right-skewed ladder where senior and specialist roles lift the average in this occupation.
Pay by state
The state spread for Continuous Mining Machine Operators runs from the $93,200 median in Wisconsin down through every other publishing state. Employment concentrates in Arizona (2,190 jobs). The complete table:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | 2,190 | 0.7 | 7.38 | $59,740 | $58,790 |
| Utah | 1,400 | 0.8 | 8.80 | $68,700 | $67,870 |
| Nevada | 1,230 | 0.8 | 8.65 | $84,330 | $84,420 |
| Missouri | 1,100 | 0.4 | 4.05 | $50,610 | $44,890 |
| California | 850 | 0.0 | 0.51 | $70,030 | $73,220 |
| West Virginia | 850 | 1.2 | 12.99 | $70,310 | $75,700 |
| Texas | 660 | 0.0 | 0.51 | $38,860 | $36,260 |
| Kentucky | 550 | 0.3 | 2.94 | $57,160 | $56,100 |
| Pennsylvania | 390 | 0.1 | 0.70 | $54,650 | $56,770 |
| Indiana | 360 | 0.1 | 1.22 | $66,520 | $67,830 |
| New Mexico | 340 | 0.4 | 4.24 | $49,430 | $46,500 |
| Wyoming | 310 | 1.1 | 12.11 | $95,830 | $92,620 |
| Illinois | 300 | 0.0 | 0.53 | $67,250 | $74,030 |
| Colorado | 290 | 0.1 | 1.10 | $81,460 | $80,140 |
| Michigan | 270 | 0.1 | 0.67 | $54,920 | $55,600 |
| Tennessee | 260 | 0.1 | 0.85 | $50,540 | $51,540 |
| Virginia | 220 | 0.1 | 0.58 | $69,400 | $68,670 |
| Florida | 180 | 0.0 | 0.20 | $51,510 | $47,750 |
| North Carolina | 180 | 0.0 | 0.40 | $57,340 | $59,170 |
| Oklahoma | 180 | 0.1 | 1.15 | $46,530 | $44,880 |
| Alabama | 160 | 0.1 | 0.80 | $57,750 | $60,030 |
| Idaho | 150 | 0.2 | 1.88 | $66,260 | $67,280 |
| New York | 140 | 0.0 | 0.16 | $64,070 | $49,370 |
| Arkansas | 110 | 0.1 | 0.88 | $44,550 | $43,640 |
| Louisiana | 70 | 0.0 | 0.40 | $40,560 | $36,470 |
| Nebraska | 70 | 0.1 | 0.76 | $55,790 | $54,790 |
| Georgia | 50 | 0.0 | 0.12 | $59,100 | $60,050 |
| Mississippi | 40 | 0.0 | 0.39 | $38,470 | $41,510 |
| Minnesota | n/p | n/p | n/p | $68,990 | $68,400 |
| Ohio | n/p | n/p | n/p | $59,080 | $56,580 |
| Wisconsin | n/p | n/p | n/p | $85,210 | $93,200 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Continuous Mining Machine Operators stands number 621 by employment and number 354 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Construction and Extraction Occupations, the group median wage is $54,660 across 60 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 16% more than its group median, and it supplies 0.2% of the group's 6,361,730 jobs. In 12 of the 31 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $63,380, 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
St. Louis, MO-IL is the largest metro employer with 230 jobs, 1.6% of the national total. Two rankings follow across the 6 metros BLS publishes for this occupation: where the jobs are, then where the money is, with the pay ranking restricted to metros employing at least 500 people in this occupation to keep small samples out of the lead.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis, MO-IL | 230 | $50,880 | $38,010 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 190 | $67,450 | $63,850 |
| Wheeling, WV-OH | 150 | $69,460 | $65,620 |
| Beckley, WV | 140 | $68,660 | $62,900 |
| Kansas City, MO-KS | 130 | $50,290 | $37,850 |
| Charleston, WV | 90 | $70,320 | $63,860 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
As a household number, $63,380 a year is $5,282 a month gross, $2,438 every two weeks, $1,219 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($50,850) to the 75th ($76,850) is worth $26,000 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. The next step from a gross figure is a net one: run the $5,282 monthly figure through the paycheck calculator applies your state's taxes, the salary calculator compares two offers in any unit, and the raise vs inflation calculator tells you whether a nominal raise is a real one.
To place a real offer: a salary of $69,718 would sit between the median ($63,380) and the 75th percentile ($76,850), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $50,850, is $12,530 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Construction and Extraction Occupations
Compare the ladder above with the closest relatives in the survey: Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators, Roustabouts, Oil and Gas, Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas, Helpers--Pipelayers, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters, Tile and Stone Setters, Insulation Workers, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall. The Careers hub carries the whole branch, group by group.
Frequently asked questions
What is the median salary for Continuous Mining Machine Operators?
$63,380 a year ($30.47), the middle wage among 14,340 counted workers in the BLS May 2024 estimates. The 75th percentile is $76,850 and the 90th is $84,420.
Where are Continuous Mining Machine Operators jobs concentrated?
By headcount, Arizona leads with 2,190 jobs; by concentration, West Virginia leads with a location quotient of 12.99, meaning the occupation is 12.99 times as dense there as nationally.
What do the top 10% of Continuous Mining Machine Operators earn?
$84,420 a year or more. The gap between the 90th percentile and the median ($63,380) is the size of the senior and specialist premium in this occupation.
How does EveryCalc get Continuous Mining Machine Operators pay data?
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS bulk files for May 2024 (national, state, and metropolitan), downloaded November 5, 2026. Nothing on this page is self-reported by workers or scraped from job postings.