Pile Driver Operators Salary and Pay
How much do Pile Driver Operators make?
The median Pile Driver Operators worker earns $70,510 a year ($33.90), and the mean annual wage is $79,000. BLS counted 3,040 people in this occupation in May 2024. The middle half of earners make between $54,750 and $103,960.
The complete pay picture for Pile Driver Operators: 3,040 jobs nationally, a median of $70,510, and the state and metro tables that show where that median is beaten and where it is not.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Gross pay only, before taxes and benefits. The picker starts at this occupation's median ($70,510); the custom box accepts any annual figure, which is how you price an offer letter against the ladder below.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $46,690 | $22.45 |
| 25th percentile | $54,750 | $26.32 |
| Median (50th) | $70,510 | $33.90 |
| 75th percentile | $103,960 | $49.98 |
| 90th percentile | $121,990 | $58.65 |
The five rows are five different workers in the same occupation, from the 10th percentile ($46,690) to the 90th ($121,990). 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
May 2024 employment stood at 3,040, or 0.00% of the U.S. total. California leads the state table with 790 jobs; the top three states sum to 53.3% of the occupation. The concentration measure tells the more interesting story: Alaska posts a location quotient of 16.79, so a worker there is far more likely to meet a colleague in this field than the national pattern suggests.
The spread matters as much as the center. Earners at the 90th percentile make $121,990, which is 2.6 times the $46,690 at the 10th, a difference of $75,300 annually. Because the mean wage ($79,000) sits above the median ($70,510), a typical offer should be judged against the median and the 25th to 75th percentile band, not the mean.
Pay by state
Every state with a publishable estimate is in this table, 15 of them, sorted by jobs. The pay leader by median is New Jersey at $125,050; the jobs leader is California:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 790 | 0.0 | 2.22 | $105,720 | $105,950 |
| Florida | 560 | 0.1 | 2.92 | $54,470 | $54,750 |
| Texas | 270 | 0.0 | 0.98 | $63,270 | $66,070 |
| Massachusetts | 220 | 0.1 | 3.07 | $111,450 | $113,360 |
| Louisiana | 180 | 0.1 | 4.69 | $57,650 | $58,980 |
| Virginia | 130 | 0.0 | 1.60 | $55,950 | $49,960 |
| Alaska | 110 | 0.3 | 16.79 | $86,890 | $87,630 |
| Georgia | 70 | 0.0 | 0.72 | $51,150 | $46,710 |
| Indiana | 60 | 0.0 | 1.01 | $64,980 | $49,330 |
| New Jersey | 60 | 0.0 | 0.67 | $102,080 | $125,050 |
| Pennsylvania | 30 | 0.0 | 0.26 | $92,470 | $91,160 |
| Maryland | n/p | n/p | n/p | $74,100 | $77,990 |
| North Carolina | n/p | n/p | n/p | $48,070 | $44,990 |
| South Carolina | n/p | n/p | n/p | $54,770 | $55,960 |
| Washington | n/p | n/p | n/p | $107,370 | $101,260 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Pile Driver Operators stands number 787 by employment and number 284 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 29% more than its group median, and it supplies 0.0% of the group's 6,361,730 jobs. In 7 of the 15 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $70,510, 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 260 jobs, 8.6% of the national total. Two rankings follow across the 13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 260 | $98,680 | $103,790 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 180 | $57,190 | $54,750 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 170 | $112,430 | $118,960 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | 150 | $66,470 | $67,980 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 130 | $125,600 | $133,080 |
| Baton Rouge, LA | 110 | $58,950 | $59,000 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 100 | $50,440 | $49,270 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | 80 | $106,780 | $114,470 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 80 | $53,960 | $50,810 |
| Anchorage, AK | 60 | $84,280 | $87,630 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
The median Pile Driver Operators paycheck, gross, is $2,712 every two weeks on an annual $70,510, which is $5,876 a month and $1,356 a week. Moving from the 25th percentile ($54,750) to the 75th ($103,960) is worth $49,210 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 $77,561 would sit between the median ($70,510) and the 75th percentile ($103,960), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $54,750, is $15,760 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Construction and Extraction Occupations
Sibling occupations in Construction and Extraction Occupations: Hazardous Materials Removal Workers, 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. Medians there are computed identically, so the comparison is apples to apples; the full set lives on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Pile Driver Operators make?
The median annual wage is $70,510 and the mean is $79,000 in the BLS OEWS May 2024 estimates. The middle half of workers earn between $54,750 and $103,960 a year.
Which state pays Pile Driver Operators the most?
By median annual wage, New Jersey leads the state table at $125,050, based on 60 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 Pile Driver Operators are there in the United States?
BLS counted 3,040 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 California with 790 jobs.
What do the OEWS percentiles mean for Pile Driver Operators?
They mark points in this occupation's pay distribution. One worker in ten earns $46,690 or less and one in ten earns $121,990 or more; the median, $70,510, is the wage of the worker exactly in the middle of the 3,040 counted jobs.