Highest-Paying Maintenance Jobs and Salaries in 2026
Maintenance pay varies more than almost any other field — by region, industry, plant size, union status, and how much responsibility actually sits behind the title. This guide ranks the highest-paying maintenance jobs in the United States, shows the range for each rather than a single number, names the source and date behind every figure, and explains why two salary sites will quote you very different answers for the same job.
How to Read These Salary Ranges
Maintenance pay is not standard across the United States. The same title can differ by more than $40,000 depending on industry and facility type — a maintenance supervisor in a manufacturing plant and one in an apartment complex are paid from different markets. The major salary sources also disagree with each other by a third or more, because each measures a different population.
Every figure on this page is therefore a range, not a single number. Ranges are the 25th to 75th percentile: the band containing the middle half of people in that job. Each one is labeled with the source that published it and the date that source was last updated.
These are estimates, not offers. Pay varies with location and cost of living, industry, plant or portfolio size, company budget, union status, shift differential and overtime, the scope of responsibility behind the title, certifications held, and years of experience.
Quick Answers
| Highest-paying maintenance job | Facilities Director — $157,854 to $200,499 |
|---|---|
| Highest-paying role that needs no degree | First-line maintenance supervisor — $79,860 national median, $38.39 an hour. A high school diploma plus trade experience. |
| Best-corroborated salary on this page | Facilities Manager, $93,963 to $117,922 — the federal survey and the employer benchmark land $157 apart at the midpoint |
| Fastest-growing maintenance occupation | Wind turbine service technician, projected +50% from 2024 to 2034 |
| Fastest-growing core industrial role | Industrial machinery mechanic, +16%, adding 70,700 jobs and 45,700 openings a year |
| Most job openings each year | Maintenance and repair workers, general — 159,800 a year |
| Typical industrial maintenance pay | $64,520 a year, $31.02 an hour — the national median for industrial machinery mechanics. Half the occupation earns more, half less. |
| Do you need a degree? | No, for six of the eight federally tracked maintenance occupations here. A high school diploma plus an apprenticeship or on-the-job training is the standard entry path. |
Maintenance Jobs and Salaries at a Glance
| # | Job title | Typical annual range |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Facilities Director | $157,854 – $200,499 |
| 2 | Maintenance Manager | $134,830 – $160,583 |
| 3 | Reliability Manager | $94,500 – $140,000 |
| 4 | Reliability Engineer | $102,500 – $129,000 |
| 5 | Maintenance and Engineering Manager | $75,000 – $127,500 |
| 6 | Vibration Analyst and Condition Monitoring Specialist | $72,000 – $126,500 |
| 7 | Maintenance Operations Manager | $97,763 – $124,683 |
| 8 | Facilities Manager | $93,963 – $117,922 |
| 9 | Equipment Engineer | $88,000 – $110,000 |
| 10 | Maintenance Planner | $80,091 – $99,927 |
| 11 | Plant Maintenance Manager | $75,800 – $94,500 |
| 12 | Maintenance Supervisor | $71,300 – $91,700 |
| 13 | Industrial Maintenance Technician | $63,777 – $77,982 |
| 14 | Maintenance Technician | $54,979 – $67,377 |
| 15 | Maintenance Engineer | Varies by sourcesee entry |
The Jobs, Ranked by Pay
1. Facilities Director
$157,854 to $200,499 per year.
Facilities Directors carry full responsibility for the buildings, grounds, and building systems of an organization, often across multiple sites. They set capital and operating budgets, direct maintenance and engineering staff, manage vendor and service contracts, and answer for energy performance, code compliance, and life-safety systems. It is the highest-paying entry here because it combines budget authority with accountability for the physical assets. Job-board figures for the same title run wider, at $92,000 to $202,000 with a $145,716 average.
Key skills
- Multi-site facilities and capital planning
- Budget ownership and vendor contract management
- Building systems: HVAC, electrical, life safety
- Code compliance and energy management
- Department leadership and staffing
2. Maintenance Manager
$134,830 to $160,583 per year.
The most searched management title in maintenance, and the one whose reported pay varies most. The Maintenance Manager owns the maintenance budget, the preventive and predictive maintenance program, the spare parts strategy, and the performance of the maintenance department against uptime and cost targets. Employer-reported compensation benchmarks put the median at $146,514, and the manufacturing-specific version of the title comes in at $145,250 — within one percent. Job-board data for the same phrase is far lower, around a $65,662 average, because the posting pool for “maintenance manager” pulls in apartment, property, and small-facility roles whose 25th percentile sits at technician pay. When comparing offers, confirm whether the number you are looking at reflects a plant maintenance department or a building superintendent job.
Key skills
- Maintenance budget ownership and cost control
- Preventive and predictive maintenance program design
- Spare parts and MRO inventory strategy
- Uptime, OEE, and reliability performance
- Team leadership across shifts
3. Reliability Manager
$94,500 to $140,000 per year.
Reliability Managers own the strategy that keeps industrial assets running: which equipment gets what maintenance, when, and why. They apply Reliability Centered Maintenance and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis to target the failures that actually cost money, build predictive maintenance programs around condition data, and report reliability performance to plant leadership.
Key skills
- Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM)
- Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
- Root cause analysis and failure investigation
- Predictive maintenance program design
- Reliability metrics and executive reporting
4. Reliability Engineer
$102,500 to $129,000 per year.
Reliability Engineers do the analytical work behind the maintenance strategy. They study failure history, run criticality analyses, calculate MTBF and MTTR, design out recurring failure modes, and set maintenance intervals from evidence rather than manufacturer defaults. The role is one of the few in maintenance where a four-year engineering degree is standard, and the pay reflects it. There is no federal wage estimate for this exact title; the closest proxy is industrial engineers at a $102,440 median.
Key skills
- Failure data analysis and criticality ranking
- MTBF, MTTR, and availability calculation
- Root cause analysis (RCA)
- Maintenance interval and task optimization
- Reliability modeling and life cycle costing
5. Maintenance and Engineering Manager
$75,000 to $127,500 per year.
This role runs maintenance and engineering as a single function, which is common in mid-sized plants and in facilities where capital projects and day-to-day upkeep share the same team. The manager sets maintenance strategy, approves engineering changes, controls the combined budget, and coordinates the handoff between project work and the maintenance program that has to sustain it.
Key skills
- Combined maintenance and engineering budgets
- Capital project and equipment installation oversight
- Maintenance strategy and program development
- Regulatory and safety compliance
- Cross-department leadership
6. Vibration Analyst and Condition Monitoring Specialist
$72,000 to $126,500 per year.
Condition monitoring specialists collect and interpret vibration spectra, thermal images, ultrasound, and oil analysis results to diagnose bearing wear, misalignment, imbalance, looseness, and lubrication problems in rotating equipment. Certification is graded from Category I through IV under ISO 18436-2, and the pay range is unusually wide because a Category III or IV analyst is a genuinely scarce specialist.
Key skills
- Vibration spectrum and waveform analysis
- Infrared thermography
- Airborne and structure-borne ultrasound
- Oil analysis and tribology
- ISO 18436-2 certification, Category I through IV
7. Maintenance Operations Manager
$97,763 to $124,683 per year.
A management role with budget authority, sitting above the supervisor level and below the director level. The Maintenance Operations Manager runs the maintenance function across a site or a group of sites: staffing and shift coverage, work order throughput, contractor and vendor management, operating budget performance, and the reporting that goes up to operations leadership. Scope varies more from company to company than almost any other title in the field — some employers use it as a synonym for plant maintenance manager, others for a multi-site operations role. One note on the data: this range comes from a single employer-benchmark source, because the major job boards do not maintain a page for this exact phrase. The closest indexed title, Operations and Maintenance Manager, runs $76,800 to $115,400 with a $104,471 average.
Key skills
- Maintenance staffing, scheduling, and throughput
- Operating budget management and cost reporting
- Contractor and vendor management
- Work order and CMMS program administration
- Cross-site operations coordination
8. Facilities Manager
$93,963 to $117,922 per year.
Facilities Managers run the buildings: maintenance and janitorial staff, building systems, space planning, service contracts, safety and code compliance, and the operating budget for a site or campus. It is the single best-corroborated figure on this page. The federal estimate for facilities managers (SOC 11-3013) is a $106,660 median, and the employer-reported benchmark is $106,503 — a difference of $157, or about one tenth of one percent. When an establishment survey and a compensation survey land that close, the number is about as solid as salary data gets. The role is distinct from Facilities Director, which carries portfolio-level capital authority and pays substantially more.
Key skills
- Building systems and preventive maintenance oversight
- Operating budget and service contract management
- Space planning and moves
- Safety, code, and life-safety compliance
- Vendor and janitorial staff management
9. Equipment Engineer
$88,000 to $110,000 per year.
Equipment Engineers specify, install, commission, and improve production equipment. They evaluate new machinery against process requirements, run acceptance testing, resolve performance shortfalls after installation, and feed maintainability requirements back into equipment selection.
Key skills
- Equipment specification and vendor evaluation
- Installation, commissioning, and acceptance testing
- Process capability and performance analysis
- Design for maintainability
- Capital project management
10. Maintenance Planner
$80,091 to $99,927 per year.
The planner does the work that happens before a job reaches the crew: scoping what needs to be done, identifying and staging parts and tools, estimating labor hours, writing the work package, and coordinating with production on equipment access. Planning and scheduling are two different jobs and planners consistently earn more — scheduling, which sequences planned work against production windows and crew availability, comes in around a $69,166 median. Job-board data for planners is lower at a $74,036 average. Be careful with any planner figure above $110,000; those describe a Level III benchmark rather than the generic role.
Key skills
- Job scoping and work package development
- Parts kitting, staging, and MRO coordination
- Labor estimating and backlog management
- CMMS planning modules and work order data discipline
- Coordination with production scheduling
11. Plant Maintenance Manager
$75,800 to $94,500 per year.
Runs the maintenance department of a single plant: the preventive maintenance schedule, the crew, the parts room, the maintenance budget, and the uptime numbers reported to plant leadership. In practice the same job is often posted as Maintenance Manager or Maintenance Operations Manager, both of which report higher pay, so the title itself is worth negotiating over. A warning on the data for this one: only job-board data publishes clean figures under this exact title. The compensation-vendor page that appears for “Plant Maintenance Manager” actually serves a different job, Maintenance Planning Supervisor, at $114,358. Any figure above $100,000 attributed to this title should be checked before it is repeated.
Key skills
- Plant preventive and predictive maintenance program ownership
- Maintenance budget and cost per unit of output
- Crew staffing, shift coverage, and skills development
- Spare parts and MRO inventory control
- Uptime, OEE, and downtime reporting to plant leadership
12. Maintenance Supervisor
$71,300 to $91,700 per year.
The most common supervisor title in maintenance, and the first management rung in most organizations. The supervisor runs a crew day to day: assigning work, checking quality, handling safety compliance and toolbox talks, keeping the schedule moving, and escalating what the crew cannot resolve. It is a working management role; most maintenance supervisors came up through the trade. The federal figure for this work, first-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers, is a $79,860 median, and the employer benchmark of $83,900 agrees within five percent. Job-board data is far lower at a $65,662 average because that posting pool is dominated by apartment, property, and retail roles. What the title pays depends heavily on which world it sits in: industrial maintenance supervisors average $88,620, facilities and property supervisors $76,530.
Key skills
- Crew scheduling, assignment, and work quality
- Safety compliance, lockout/tagout, and toolbox training
- Work order execution and CMMS discipline
- Hands-on trade competence in the crew’s discipline
- Coaching and skills development
13. Industrial Maintenance Technician
$63,777 to $77,982 per year.
Industrial maintenance technicians keep production machinery running: mechanical drives and bearings, industrial electrical and motor controls, hydraulics, pneumatics, and increasingly PLCs and automated equipment. It pays meaningfully more than the generic maintenance technician title because the equipment is more complex and the cost of downtime is higher. The nearest federal occupation code is industrial machinery mechanics (49-9041) at a $64,520 median, or $31.02 an hour, and that occupation is projected to grow 16 percent from 2024 to 2034 — the fastest of any large maintenance occupation. Job-board data averages lower at $51,890, reflecting advertised starting pay rather than what experienced technicians earn.
Key skills
- Mechanical drives, bearings, and rotating equipment
- Industrial electrical systems and motor controls
- Hydraulics and pneumatics
- PLC troubleshooting and automated equipment
- Precision maintenance: alignment, balancing, lubrication
14. Maintenance Technician
$54,979 to $67,377 per year.
Maintenance technicians handle general building and equipment upkeep: routine preventive maintenance, repairs across mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, and responding to work orders as they come in. It is the most common entry point into the field. Three sources give three very different answers, and the gap is about who is being counted. The employer benchmark is $60,550. The federal figure for maintenance and repair workers, general (SOC 49-9071) is $49,590 a year, or $23.84 an hour, covering the entire 1.63 million-person occupation. Job-board data averages just $46,741, or $22.47 an hour, because postings skew toward advertised entry pay in high-turnover segments.
Key skills
- Preventive maintenance execution
- Basic mechanical, electrical, and plumbing repair
- Work order intake and CMMS reporting
- Safety procedures and lockout/tagout
- Troubleshooting across building and equipment systems
15. Maintenance Engineer
No single reliable range. See below.
This title has no reliable national number, which matters before using it in a negotiation or a job posting. Employer-benchmark data treats Maintenance Engineer as a degreed engineering job family and reports a $104,745 median, range $98,103 to $116,997. Job-board data treats it as a shop-floor title and reports a $54,481 average, range $36,500 to $66,000. That is a 1.9 times gap between two sources for the same two words, the largest divergence found anywhere in this research, and the job-board figure has an unusually wide quartile spread, which is the signature of a badly mixed title pool. If you see Maintenance Engineer on a posting, read the duties before you read the number: it may describe a degreed reliability or equipment engineering role, or it may describe a senior technician. Compare against Reliability Engineer and Equipment Engineer for the degreed version, and Industrial Maintenance Technician for the shop-floor version.
Key skills
- At the engineering end: maintenance strategy, reliability analysis, and procedure design, typically requiring a four-year degree
- At the technician end: advanced troubleshooting and equipment repair, typically requiring a trade background
- Failure analysis and maintenance interval optimization
- CMMS data analysis and maintenance cost reporting
- Equipment modification and reliability improvement projects
Why Salary Sources Disagree
Search any maintenance job title and you will get four different numbers from four different sites. They are not contradicting each other so much as measuring different populations with different instruments. Knowing which instrument produced a figure tells you how to read it.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS). A semiannual survey of employers about wages actually paid. The most rigorous source available, and free, but it lags — the May 2025 estimates were not released until May 2026 — and it covers only standardized occupation codes, not the job titles employers advertise.
- Salary.com. Employer-reported compensation benchmarks. Runs higher than job boards because it reflects incumbent pay at established employers rather than advertised starting pay. Watch the URL: benchmark pages sometimes serve a leveled variant, so a “Maintenance Planner” figure above $110,000 is usually a Level III benchmark rather than the generic role.
- ZipRecruiter and Indeed. Derived from active job postings. Current, but biased toward openings rather than the existing workforce, and skewed toward high-turnover segments. This is why “maintenance manager” looks so much cheaper on job boards: the posting pool pulls in apartment and property roles whose 25th percentile sits at technician pay.
- Glassdoor and Payscale. Self-reported by employees. Useful for direction, but sample sizes per title are often small, and Glassdoor frequently quotes total compensation including bonus, which is not comparable to a base salary figure from any other source.
The practical rule: compare like with like. A base-salary median from an employer survey and a total-compensation average from a self-reported sample will never match, and averaging them produces a number that means nothing.
The Maintenance Career Ladder and What Each Step Pays
National midpoint pay at each step of the typical maintenance progression.
| Step | Role | Midpoint pay | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maintenance and repair worker, general | $49,590 | BLS OEWS 49-9071, May 2025 |
| 2 | Industrial machinery mechanic | $64,520 | BLS OEWS 49-9041, May 2025 |
| 3 | First-line maintenance supervisor | $79,860 | BLS OEWS 49-1011, May 2025 |
| 4 | Maintenance and engineering manager | $103,333 | ZipRecruiter average, August 2026 |
| 5 | Reliability manager | $117,488 | ZipRecruiter average, August 15, 2026 |
| 6 | Facilities director | $174,462 | Salary.com median, August 1, 2026 |
The two largest jumps are supervisor to manager, where budget authority enters the job, and manager to director, where responsibility widens from one plant to a portfolio. Both turn on financial accountability rather than technical depth.
How Much Do Maintenance Jobs Pay Per Hour?
These are the federal median hourly wages for the maintenance occupations the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks, alongside the annual equivalent. The median hourly wage across all United States occupations was $24.51 in May 2025.
| SOC code | Occupation | Median hourly | Median annual | vs. $24.51 all-occupation median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17-2112 | Industrial engineers | $49.25 | $102,440 | Double |
| 49-1011 | First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers | $38.39 | $79,860 | 57% above |
| 49-9041 | Industrial machinery mechanics | $31.02 | $64,520 | 27% above |
| 49-9081 | Wind turbine service technicians | $30.83 | $64,120 | 26% above |
| 49-9071 | Maintenance and repair workers, general | $23.84 | $49,590 | Slightly below |
General maintenance and repair workers — the largest maintenance occupation in the country at 1.63 million jobs — earn $23.84 an hour, slightly below the median for all occupations. Industrial machinery mechanics clear it at $31.02, and first-line maintenance supervisors reach $38.39. The gap tracks specialization and licensing.
Which Maintenance Jobs Are Growing Fastest?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment a decade forward. The current release covers 2024 to 2034 and was published August 28, 2025. Total United States employment is projected to grow 3.1 percent over that decade, so anything above that is growing faster than the economy as a whole. The installation, maintenance, and repair group is projected to grow 4.6 percent, adding 301,400 jobs.
| SOC code | Occupation | Employment 2024 | Projected growth | Jobs added | Openings per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49-9081 | Wind turbine service technicians | 13,600 | +50% | +6,800 | 2,300 |
| 49-9041 | Industrial machinery mechanics | 439,600 | +16% | +70,700 | 45,700 |
| 17-2112 | Industrial engineers | 351,100 | +11% | +38,500 | 25,200 |
| 49-9071 | Maintenance and repair workers, general | 1,629,700 | +4% | +62,400 | 159,800 |
| 49-1011 | First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers | 617,500 | 3–4% | Not published | 52,400 |
Three notes on this table. First, growth rate and job volume are different questions: general maintenance and repair workers grow only 4 percent but produce 159,800 openings a year, far more than any other maintenance occupation, because the workforce is enormous and turnover replaces most of it. Second, the 16 percent projected growth for industrial machinery mechanics is specific to that occupation code — within the same BLS group, maintenance workers for machinery (49-9043) are projected to decline 3 percent and millwrights (49-9044) to hold flat at zero. Third, BLS does not publish a precise growth figure for first-line maintenance supervisors; the published descriptor is average growth, defined as 3 to 4 percent.
Do You Need a Degree for a Maintenance Job?
For most of them, no. Six of the eight federally tracked maintenance occupations below require no more than a high school diploma or a postsecondary certificate at entry. The split on this question is one of the more useful facts in the whole field: first-line maintenance supervisors earn $38.39 an hour on a high school diploma and trade experience, while industrial engineers earn $49.25 an hour and need a bachelor’s degree.
| Occupation | Typical entry education | On-the-job training | Apprenticeship or license |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial machinery mechanics | High school diploma or equivalent | One year or more | Not standard for mechanics; millwrights typically complete a four-year apprenticeship |
| Wind turbine service technicians | Postsecondary nondegree award | Long-term on-the-job training | Certification optional: electrical safety, tower climbing, self-rescue |
| Maintenance and repair workers, general | High school diploma or equivalent | Moderate-term on-the-job training | Optional; state license may be required for electrical or plumbing work |
| First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers | High school diploma or equivalent, some college common | Experience in the trade supervised | None standard |
| Industrial engineers | Bachelor’s degree | None typical | Professional Engineer license optional |
More Maintenance Job Titles and What They Pay
Additional maintenance titles, sourced and dated on the same basis as the ranked list above.
| Job title | Typical range | Midpoint |
|---|---|---|
| Fleet Maintenance ManagerRuns maintenance for a vehicle or equipment fleet: preventive service intervals, DOT compliance, shop staffing, parts, and cost per mile. Job-board data agrees closely at an $85,184 average. | $79,200 – $102,200 | $89,500 median |
| Building EngineerOperates and maintains the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems of a commercial building. Job-board data is lower at a $67,285 average. The chief building engineer variant carries far wider reported figures and should be treated with caution. | $84,203 – $95,883 | $90,157 median |
| Stationary Engineer and Boiler OperatorOperates and maintains boilers, chillers, turbines, and building power plants, often under state licensing. Federally tracked as SOC 51-8021 at $37.80 an hour. Job-board data corroborates closely at a $77,249 average — one of the tightest source agreements in the field. | Not published | $78,620 median |
| First-Line Maintenance SupervisorThe federal occupation code covering supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers across all industries (SOC 49-1011), at $38.39 an hour. This is the first management rung in most maintenance organizations. | Not published | $79,860 median |
| Instrumentation and Controls TechnicianCalibrates, troubleshoots, and maintains process instrumentation, control loops, and PLC-connected field devices. The closest federal code, electrical and electronics repairers for commercial and industrial equipment (49-2094), sits at a $74,090 median — close corroboration. | $60,000 – $85,000 | $73,669 average |
| Electrical Maintenance SupervisorLeads the electricians and technicians who maintain industrial electrical distribution, motor control, drives, and instrumentation. Owns arc flash and lockout/tagout compliance for the crew. | $62,700 – $100,000 | $86,287 average |
| Plant Maintenance EngineerOwns the maintenance strategy for an entire facility: the preventive maintenance program, plant-wide cost and performance analysis, CMMS administration, and usually energy and utilities performance. | $62,200 – $99,100 | $88,242 average |
| Mechanical Maintenance SupervisorRuns the crews maintaining rotating and mechanical equipment — pumps, compressors, gearboxes, conveyors, drives — including precision alignment, balancing, and condition-based programs. | $59,500 – $98,000 | $82,586 average |
| Production Maintenance SupervisorSupervises maintenance crews in a production environment. The highest-paying supervisor variant found. | $83,923 – $99,441 | $91,389 median |
| Industrial Maintenance SupervisorPlant and industrial maintenance crew supervision. Pays roughly $12,000 more than the facilities and property equivalent of the same title. | $70,800 – $101,500 | $88,620 average |
| Facilities Maintenance SupervisorSupervises maintenance staff in commercial, property, and institutional facilities. The lower-paying half of the supervisor split. | $56,800 – $87,100 | $76,530 average |
| CNC Service EngineerMaintains, repairs, and programs computer numerical control machines and diagnoses control and servo faults. A natural stepping stone into equipment engineering or maintenance management. | $70,500 – $83,500 | $78,330 average |
| Equipment Maintenance EngineerKeeps specific machines and systems performing to specification: maintenance procedure design for individual assets, advanced diagnostics, condition monitoring data, and equipment upgrades. | $75,000 – $115,000 | $94,999 average |
| MillwrightInstalls, dismantles, aligns, and relocates heavy industrial machinery. Federally tracked as SOC 49-9044 at $31.59 an hour, and entered through a four-year apprenticeship. A different occupation from industrial machinery mechanic, with a different outlook — see the FAQ below. | Not published | $65,700 median |
| Industrial ElectricianInstalls, maintains, and troubleshoots industrial electrical systems, motor controls, drives, and plant power distribution. The federal code for electricians (47-2111) is a $63,190 median at $30.38 an hour — close agreement across all three sources. | $57,548 – $70,966 | $64,268 median |
| Bus and Truck Mechanic / Diesel Engine SpecialistMaintains and repairs heavy vehicle engines, drivetrains, brakes, and emissions systems. Federally tracked as SOC 49-3031 at $29.70 an hour. | Not published | $61,770 median |
| HVAC TechnicianInstalls, services, and repairs heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration systems. The tightest three-source agreement of any title checked: federal median $61,010 (SOC 49-9021), employer benchmark $61,343, job-board average $58,782. The commercial variant pays roughly $4,000 more. EPA Section 608 certification is legally required for refrigerant work. | $55,436 – $66,734 | $61,343 median |
| Maintenance Scheduler / Planner-SchedulerSequences and releases maintenance work against production windows and crew availability. Distinct from the planner role, which scopes and kits the job, and which pays a consistent premium over scheduling. | $62,137 – $75,072 | $69,166 median |
| Robotics Maintenance TechnicianMaintains, programs, and troubleshoots industrial robots and robotic cells. Demand is growing quickly as plants automate, and it is one of the better entry points into automation and controls engineering. | $53,000 – $68,000 | $60,035 average |
| Wind Turbine Service TechnicianInstalls, inspects, and repairs wind turbines, including climbing and confined-space work in the nacelle. Federally tracked as SOC 49-9081 at $30.83 an hour, and the fastest-growing occupation on this page at a projected 50 percent. | Not published | $64,120 median |
| Industrial Machinery MechanicThe core federal occupation for industrial maintenance (SOC 49-9041), at $31.02 an hour. Projected to grow 16 percent from 2024 to 2034, the fastest of any large maintenance occupation. | Not published | $64,520 median |
| Hydraulic TechnicianBuilds, services, and troubleshoots hydraulic circuits, pumps, valves, and actuators. The employer-benchmark figure is close, at a $54,519 median. | $41,500 – $60,000 | $51,632 average |
| Maintenance and Repair Worker, GeneralThe broadest federal maintenance occupation (SOC 49-9071), at $23.84 an hour, covering general building and equipment upkeep. The common entry point into the field, and the source of roughly 159,800 job openings a year. | Not published | $49,590 median |
Certifications That Support Higher Maintenance Pay
Published data on certification pay premiums in maintenance is thin, so any precise dollar figure attached to a credential should be treated with suspicion. What can be stated accurately is which credentials employers list in postings for the roles above.
- CMRP — Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional, issued by the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals. The most widely requested credential for reliability and maintenance management roles. See why SMRP matters in maintenance and reliability.
- CRL — Certified Reliability Leader, focused on the leadership and organizational side of reliability rather than the analytical side.
- ISO 18436-2 Vibration Analyst, Category I through IV — the standard credential for condition monitoring work. Category III and IV analysts are scarce and command the top of that pay range.
- EPA Section 608 — legally required to handle refrigerants, and therefore a hard prerequisite for most HVAC and facilities maintenance positions.
- CEM — Certified Energy Manager, common in facilities director and plant engineering postings where energy performance is part of the job.
- PMP — Project Management Professional, relevant to maintenance and engineering managers who run capital projects alongside the maintenance program.
- Journeyman electrician license and NFPA 70E training — prerequisites for electrical maintenance supervision in most industrial settings.
Frequently Asked Questions About Maintenance Salaries
How much do maintenance jobs pay per hour?
The median hourly wage for industrial machinery mechanics is $31.02 (BLS OEWS 49-9041, May 2025). General maintenance and repair workers earn a median of $23.84 an hour, and first-line maintenance supervisors $38.39. The median across all United States occupations was $24.51 in May 2025, so most specialized maintenance work pays above the national middle.
Is maintenance a good career?
By the numbers, yes. Six of the eight federally tracked maintenance occupations require no college degree, several pay well above the national median wage, and industrial machinery mechanics are projected to grow 16 percent between 2024 and 2034 against 3.1 percent for the economy as a whole. The field also produces a large volume of openings: general maintenance and repair workers alone account for about 159,800 openings a year. The tradeoffs are real too. Much of the work is physical, a lot of it is on call or on shift, and some of it carries real safety exposure.
Can you get a maintenance job without a degree?
Yes. Industrial machinery mechanics, general maintenance, wind turbine service, and most first-line supervisor positions all list a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry education. The path into the higher-paying ones runs through on-the-job training, an apprenticeship, or a trade program rather than a classroom. Wind turbine service technicians need a postsecondary certificate but not a degree. The exceptions are reliability engineering, equipment engineering, and industrial engineering, which typically require a bachelor’s degree.
What is the difference between a millwright and an industrial machinery mechanic?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics treats them as separate occupations with separate outlooks. Industrial machinery mechanics (SOC 49-9041) maintain and repair machinery already installed and in production; that occupation is projected to grow 16 percent from 2024 to 2034. Millwrights (SOC 49-9044) install, dismantle, and move heavy machinery, usually entering through a four-year apprenticeship; that occupation is projected to hold flat at zero percent. Machinery maintenance workers (SOC 49-9043), a third code often confused with both, are projected to decline 3 percent. The three are frequently lumped together in salary articles, and they should not be.
Which maintenance jobs are growing fastest?
Wind turbine service technicians, projected to grow 50 percent between 2024 and 2034, faster than almost any occupation in the United States, though from a small base of 13,600 jobs. Industrial machinery mechanics are next at 16 percent, adding 70,700 jobs, which makes them the fastest-growing large maintenance occupation. Industrial engineers are projected at 11 percent. All three beat the 3.1 percent projected for total United States employment. (BLS Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034, released August 28, 2025.)
Which maintenance job has the most openings?
Maintenance and repair workers, general (SOC 49-9071), with roughly 159,800 openings projected each year. That is more than three times the next-largest maintenance occupation. The volume comes from the size of the workforce — 1.63 million people — and from replacement needs rather than from growth, since the occupation itself is projected to grow only 4 percent.
What is the highest-paying maintenance job?
Facilities Director is the highest-paying maintenance job on this list, with a median of $174,462 and a 25th-to-75th percentile range of $157,854 to $200,499 (Salary.com, August 1, 2026). Among roles that do not require a degree, first-line maintenance supervisors earn the most, at a $79,860 national median (BLS OEWS 49-1011, May 2025).
How much does a maintenance manager make?
The employer-reported benchmark median is $146,514, with a range of $134,830 to $160,583. The manufacturing-specific version of the title comes in at $145,250, within one percent. Job-board data for the same phrase is dramatically lower, around a $65,662 average, because that posting pool includes apartment, property, and small-facility maintenance manager roles whose 25th percentile sits at technician pay. Before comparing any maintenance manager salary figure, confirm whether it describes a plant maintenance department or a building superintendent job.
How much does a maintenance technician make?
The employer-benchmark median is $60,550 a year, and the federal figure for maintenance and repair workers, general (SOC 49-9071) is $49,590 a year, or $23.84 an hour. Job-board data averages $46,741, or $22.47 an hour. Industrial maintenance technicians earn more: a $70,150 benchmark median, against a $64,520 federal median for industrial machinery mechanics (SOC 49-9041). The spread across sources for this one title is the widest on this page, because each source is counting a different slice of a 1.63 million-person occupation.
What does a maintenance planner do and what does it pay?
A maintenance planner scopes work before it reaches the crew: defining the job, staging parts and tools, estimating labor hours, and building the work package. A scheduler then sequences that work against production windows and crew availability. The two are distinct roles and planners consistently earn more — a $90,375 benchmark median for planners against $69,166 for schedulers. Be careful with planner figures above $110,000; those usually describe a Level III benchmark rather than the generic role.
Can maintenance jobs pay six figures?
Yes. Ten of the eleven roles on this list have a median or average at or above $99,000, and nine clear $100,000. Leadership roles reach six figures fastest, but reliability engineering, equipment engineering, and condition monitoring all approach or cross $100,000 without a management title.
Why do salary websites report different numbers for the same maintenance job?
Because they measure different things. The Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys employers about wages actually paid. Salary.com uses employer-reported compensation benchmarks. ZipRecruiter and Indeed derive figures from job postings, which reflect advertised pay rather than what incumbents earn. Glassdoor is self-reported and often quotes total compensation including bonus. A $40,000 spread between two sources for the same title usually means one is measuring base pay and the other is not, or that the two are pooling different job populations under the same label.
Do you need a degree for a high-paying maintenance job?
Not for all of them. Industrial machinery mechanics, general maintenance, wind turbine service, and most supervisory maintenance roles are reached through apprenticeships, trade credentials, and experience. Reliability engineering and equipment engineering typically require a four-year engineering degree. Maintenance management is reachable either way, though larger plants increasingly prefer a degree alongside field experience.
Which certifications matter most for maintenance pay?
The Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP) from the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals is the most widely recognized credential in the field. Others that carry weight are the Certified Reliability Leader (CRL), ISO 18436-2 vibration analyst certification at Category II and above, EPA Section 608 for refrigerant handling, Certified Energy Manager (CEM) for facilities roles, and the PMP for managers running capital projects.
Are these salary figures national averages?
Yes. Every figure on this page is a national United States figure. Actual pay varies substantially by metropolitan area, industry, plant size, union status, shift differential, and years of experience. A maintenance manager in a high-cost metro or a heavily capitalized industry such as pharmaceuticals or semiconductors can earn well above the ranges shown here, and rural or light-industry positions can fall below them.
What is the fastest way to increase maintenance pay?
The two largest pay jumps in the maintenance career ladder are from first-line supervisor to manager, where budget authority enters the job, and from manager to director, where responsibility widens from one plant to a portfolio. Both jumps depend less on technical depth than on being able to defend a maintenance budget in financial terms, which is why maintenance professionals who can produce cost and reliability data tend to move up faster.
Methodology and Sources
- Verification date. Every figure on this page was checked against the source’s live page on August 26, 2026.
- Scope. All figures are national, United States, base salary unless explicitly labeled otherwise. No figure on this page is an estimate, an interpolation, or an average of multiple sources.
- Ranking and why we show ranges. Roles are ranked by the top of their published 25th-to-75th percentile range — the band containing the middle half of people in the job. Single-point medians are shown only where the source publishes nothing else, and are labeled as national medians. Pay for the same title varies enough across regions, industries, and employers that a single national number is more likely to mislead than to inform.
- What is excluded. Bonus, overtime, shift differential, profit sharing, and benefits, except where a figure is explicitly labeled total compensation. Overtime is a material omission for hourly maintenance trades, where it can add substantially to annual earnings.
- What we do not know. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes no wage estimate for reliability engineer, maintenance manager, or most of the job titles employers actually use, so those roles rely on commercial sources. Where two sources disagree materially, the disagreement is shown rather than resolved silently.
- Sources. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates, released May 15, 2026; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034, released August 28, 2025; Salary.com employer-reported benchmarks, August 1, 2026; ZipRecruiter posting-derived salary data, July and August 2026.
- Rejected sources. Several pages were checked and discarded as unreliable: a job-board page reporting a 90th percentile inconsistent with its own stated average, a salary page returning figures identical to a different job title, and two compensation-vendor URLs that silently serve a different job than the one requested (Plant Maintenance Manager returns Maintenance Planning Supervisor; Maintenance Planner returns a Level III benchmark). None are cited here.
Related Reading
- Key roles and responsibilities of a maintenance manager
- Facilities management positions and job titles
- The Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) process
- Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
- Maintenance terms and definitions glossary
- The full eWorkOrders maintenance article library
- The eWorkOrders Learning Center
About This Data
This page is maintained by eWorkOrders, which has provided CMMS and enterprise asset management software to maintenance teams for over 30 years. Figures are re-verified against their sources when a new BLS release is published. The next Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release is expected in May 2027.
