Heavy equipment operator salary in Palm Bay, FL
Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025
Heavy equipment operators in the Palm Bay–Melbourne–Titusville, FL area earn a median of $49,140 a year, or $23.62 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. One in ten earns more than $63,940. Across all of Florida, the median is $49,400, so Palm Bay pays 1% less than the state as a whole.
- Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
- $19.02/hr
- Jobs in this area
- 620
- After cost of living
- $49,140
- Median hourly pay
- $23.62/hr
- vs U.S. median
- −18%
- vs Florida median
- −1%
- Mean (average) pay
- $51,670 a year · $24.84 an hour
Pay by percentile
What heavy equipment operators in Palm Bay, FL 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 | $19.02 | $39,550 |
| 25th percentile | $21.72 | $45,180 |
| Median (50th) | $23.62 | $49,140 |
| 75th percentile | $27.95 | $58,140 |
| 90th percentile | $30.74 | $63,940 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.
How Palm Bay, FL compares
- Palm Bay ranks 8th of 22 Florida metro areas for heavy equipment operator pay.
- Heavy equipment operators are less concentrated in the Palm Bay area than nationally: 2.5 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.82 times the U.S. share.
Other Florida metro areas
Other trades in Palm Bay, FL
Questions
- Do heavy equipment operators make more in Palm Bay or Miami?
- Miami pays more: the median is $49,140 in Palm Bay and $51,800 in Miami, a 5% 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 37340 (Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL). 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 (100.0, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures