Lineman salary in Buffalo, NY
Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025
Linemen in the Buffalo–Cheektowaga, NY area earn a median of $109,350 a year, or $52.57 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The top 10% earn more than $130,780. Across all of New York, the median is $121,280, so Buffalo pays 10% less than the state as a whole.
- Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
- $32.03/hr
- Jobs in this area
- 270
- After cost of living
- $114,090
- Median hourly pay
- $52.57/hr
- vs U.S. median
- +15%
- vs New York median
- −10%
- Mean (average) pay
- $105,990 a year · $50.96 an hour
Pay by percentile
What linemen in Buffalo, NY 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 | $32.03 | $66,620 |
| 25th percentile | $42.67 | $88,750 |
| Median (50th) | $52.57 | $109,350 |
| 75th percentile | $61.26 | $127,430 |
| 90th percentile | $62.88 | $130,780 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.
How Buffalo, NY compares
- Buffalo ranks 7th of 9 New York metro areas for lineman pay.
- Linemen are less concentrated in the Buffalo area than nationally: 0.5 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.61 times the U.S. share.
Other New York metro areas
Other trades in Buffalo, NY
Questions
- Do linemen make more in Buffalo or Kiryas Joel?
- Kiryas Joel pays more: the median is $109,350 in Buffalo and $135,400 in Kiryas Joel, a 19% difference.
About this data
Wages are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, occupation 49-9051 (Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers), area code 15380 (Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY). BLS counts wage and salary workers only, so self-employed linemen 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 (95.8, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures