Heavy equipment operator salary in Salt Lake City, UT
Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025
Heavy equipment operators in the Salt Lake City–Murray, UT area earn a median of $61,750 a year, or $29.69 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The top 10% earn more than $78,420. Statewide, heavy equipment operators earn a median of $60,740; Salt Lake City is 2% above it.
- Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
- $23.54/hr
- Jobs in this area
- 2,570
- After cost of living
- $61,220
- Median hourly pay
- $29.69/hr
- vs U.S. median
- +3%
- vs Utah median
- +2%
- Mean (average) pay
- $62,890 a year · $30.24 an hour
Pay by percentile
What heavy equipment operators in Salt Lake City, UT 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 | $23.54 | $48,960 |
| 25th percentile | $27.70 | $57,610 |
| Median (50th) | $29.69 | $61,750 |
| 75th percentile | $32.13 | $66,830 |
| 90th percentile | $37.70 | $78,420 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.
How Salt Lake City, UT compares
- Salt Lake City has the highest heavy equipment operator median of the 5 Utah metro areas with published pay.
- Heavy equipment operators hold about the same share of jobs in the Salt Lake City area as nationally: 3.1 of every 1,000 jobs.
Other Utah metro areas
Other trades in Salt Lake City, UT
Questions
- Do heavy equipment operators make more in Salt Lake City or Ogden?
- Salt Lake City pays more: the median is $61,750 in Salt Lake City and $60,250 in Ogden, a 2% 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 41620 (Salt Lake City-Murray, UT). 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 (100.9, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures