Do linemen make more in Winston or Charlotte?

Winston pays more: the median is $98,720 in Winston and $81,740 in Charlotte, a 21% difference.

Lineman salary in Winston, NC

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Linemen in the Winston–Salem, NC area earn a median of $98,720 a year, or $47.46 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $111,180 a year. Across all of North Carolina, the median is $77,270, so Winston pays 28% more than the state as a whole.

Median yearly pay$98,720

Bottom 10% under$57,070Top 10% over$111,180

Apprentice starting pay (estimate): $27.44/hr
Jobs in this area: 110
After cost of living: $107,250
Median hourly pay: $47.46/hr
vs U.S. median: +4%
vs North Carolina median: +28%
Mean (average) pay: $88,400 a year · $42.50 an hour

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 49180, Winston-Salem, NC). Excludes self-employed linemen. Cost of living: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024. *Starting pay is estimated from the 10th percentile; BLS does not report pay by license level.

Pay by percentile

What linemen in Winston, NC 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	$27.44	$57,070
25th percentile	$32.62	$67,860
Median (50th)	$47.46	$98,720
75th percentile	$50.06	$104,110
90th percentile	$53.45	$111,180

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.

How Winston, NC compares

Winston has the highest lineman median of the 13 North Carolina metro areas with published pay.
Linemen are less concentrated in the Winston area than nationally: 0.4 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.46 times the U.S. share.

Other North Carolina metro areas

Other trades in Winston, NC

Electrician HVAC technician Welder Plumber Diesel mechanic Carpenter Heavy equipment operator Auto mechanic Roofer Ironworker Millwright

Questions

Do linemen make more in Winston or Charlotte?: Winston pays more: the median is $98,720 in Winston and $81,740 in Charlotte, a 21% 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 49180 (Winston-Salem, NC). 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 (92.0, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures