Heavy equipment operator salary in Visalia, CA
Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025
Heavy equipment operators in the Visalia, CA area earn a median of $60,530 a year, or $29.10 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The top 10% earn more than $116,920. That's 31% less than the California median of $87,160.
- Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
- $22.80/hr
- Jobs in this area
- 260
- After cost of living
- $60,640
- Median hourly pay
- $29.10/hr
- vs U.S. median
- +1%
- vs California median
- −31%
- Mean (average) pay
- $70,010 a year · $33.66 an hour
Pay by percentile
What heavy equipment operators in Visalia, CA earn at each point of the pay range, May 2025: 10% earn less than the 10th percentile, half earn less than the median, and 10% earn more than the 90th.
| Percentile | Hourly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $22.80 | $47,430 |
| 25th percentile | $24.46 | $50,870 |
| Median (50th) | $29.10 | $60,530 |
| 75th percentile | $36.37 | $75,650 |
| 90th percentile | $56.21 | $116,920 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.
How Visalia, CA compares
- Visalia has the lowest heavy equipment operator median of the 25 California metro areas with published pay.
- Heavy equipment operators are less concentrated in the Visalia area than nationally: 1.5 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.50 times the U.S. share.
Other California metro areas
Other trades in Visalia, CA
Questions
- Do heavy equipment operators make more in Visalia or San Francisco?
- San Francisco pays more: the median is $60,530 in Visalia and $124,750 in San Francisco, a 51% difference.
About this data
Wages are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, occupation 47-2073 (Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators), area code 47300 (Visalia, CA). BLS counts wage and salary workers only, so self-employed heavy equipment operators and business owners aren't included. The cost-of-living figure divides the median by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity for 2024 (99.8, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures