Heavy equipment operator salary in Knoxville, TN
Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025
Heavy equipment operators in the Knoxville, TN area earn a median of $48,690 a year, or $23.41 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $78,520 a year. Statewide, heavy equipment operators earn a median of $52,000; Knoxville is 6% below it.
- Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
- $20.09/hr
- Jobs in this area
- 1,210
- After cost of living
- $52,600
- Median hourly pay
- $23.41/hr
- vs U.S. median
- −19%
- vs Tennessee median
- −6%
- Mean (average) pay
- $53,450 a year · $25.70 an hour
Pay by percentile
What heavy equipment operators in Knoxville, TN 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 | $20.09 | $41,790 |
| 25th percentile | $21.22 | $44,130 |
| Median (50th) | $23.41 | $48,690 |
| 75th percentile | $27.74 | $57,700 |
| 90th percentile | $37.75 | $78,520 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.
How Knoxville, TN compares
- Knoxville ranks 6th of 10 Tennessee metro areas for heavy equipment operator pay.
- Heavy equipment operators hold about the same share of jobs in the Knoxville area as nationally: 2.9 of every 1,000 jobs.
Other Tennessee metro areas
Other trades in Knoxville, TN
Questions
- Do heavy equipment operators make more in Knoxville or Nashville?
- Nashville pays more: the median is $48,690 in Knoxville and $56,030 in Nashville, a 13% 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 28940 (Knoxville, TN). 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 (92.6, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures