---
title: "Highway Maintenance Worker"
description: "Maintain highways, municipal and rural roads, airport runways, and rights-of-way. Duties include patching broken or eroded pavement and repairing guard…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/highway-maintenance-worker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Highway Maintenance Worker

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-4051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-4051.00

Maintain highways, municipal and rural roads, airport runways, and rights-of-way. Duties include patching broken or eroded pavement and repairing guard rails, highway markers, and snow fences. May also mow or clear brush from along road, or plow snow from roadway.

Also advertised as: Equipment Operator (EO); Highway Maintainer; Highway Maintenance Crew Worker; Highway Maintenance Technician; Highway Maintenance Worker; Maintenance Technician; Maintenance Worker; Transportation Maintenance Operator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $50,260 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $24.16/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $36,230 to $71,970, with the middle half between $43,500 and $61,040
- **Total US employment:** 154,960
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.4% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 11,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 68/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 154,960 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $36,230 |
| 25th | $43,500 |
| 50th (median) | $50,260 |
| 75th | $61,040 |
| 90th | $71,970 |
| Mean (average) | $53,080 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| OR | $65,330 | $63,206 | 1,650 |
| WA | $65,300 | $61,021 | 2,590 |
| CT | $64,870 | $62,610 | 2,130 |
| MN | $63,150 | $64,033 | 4,610 |
| IL | $61,700 | $61,726 | 10,790 |
| MA | $61,500 | $58,152 | 2,000 |
| MT | $60,960 | $64,409 | 1,140 |
| ND | $60,630 | $68,155 | 1,240 |
| CA | $59,580 | $53,811 | 8,150 |
| IA | $58,490 | $66,646 | 4,000 |
| VT | $58,460 | $59,679 | 1,170 |
| WI | $58,000 | $61,640 | 6,000 |
| RI | $57,950 | $56,658 | 620 |
| UT | $55,970 | $56,613 | 1,240 |
| NY | $55,210 | $51,158 | 13,820 |

35 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 50 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/highway-maintenance-worker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/highway-maintenance-worker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 161,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 167,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,500 jobs, or +3.4%. About as fast as average: 3.4% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 11,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 88.3% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 5.2% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 5.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 1.4% |

## What the work involves

- Drive heavy equipment and vehicles with adjustable attachments to sweep debris from paved surfaces, mow grass and weeds, remove snow and ice, and spread salt and sand.
- Flag motorists to warn them of obstacles or repair work ahead.
- Set out signs and cones around work areas to divert traffic.
- Clean and clear debris from culverts, catch basins, drop inlets, ditches, and other drain structures.
- Drive trucks to transport crews and equipment to work sites.
- Dump, spread, and tamp asphalt, using pneumatic tampers, to repair joints and patch broken pavement.
- Inspect, clean, and repair drainage systems, bridges, tunnels, and other structures.
- Haul and spread sand, gravel, and clay to fill washouts and repair road shoulders.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Operation and Control — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Control Precision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Static Strength — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 3.52 |
| S — Social | 1.77 |
| I — Investigative | 1.70 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.47 |
| A — Artistic | 1.04 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 84.6 |
| ISFJ | 73.7 |
| ISTP | 72.9 |
| ESTJ | 72.2 |
| ESTP | 60.2 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Operating Engineer and Other Construction Equipment Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/operating-engineer-and-other-construction-equipment-operator) — median $59,850
- [Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paving-surfacing-and-tamping-equipment-operator) — median $53,340
- [Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rail-track-laying-and-maintenance-equipment-operator) — median $70,070
- [Pile Driver Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pile-driver-operator) — median $73,300
- [Septic Tank Servicer and Sewer Pipe Cleaner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/septic-tank-servicer-and-sewer-pipe-cleaner) — median $49,880
- [Construction Laborer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/construction-laborer) — median $47,120
- [Maintenance and Repair Worker, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maintenance-and-repair-worker-general) — median $49,590
- [Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operator, Surface Mining](https://nuecareer.com/careers/excavating-and-loading-machine-and-dragline-operator-surface-mining) — median $57,430
- [Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-truck-and-tractor-operator) — median $46,420
- [Helpers--Extraction Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-extraction-worker) — median $47,730

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/highway-maintenance-worker