The salary statistics of locomotive engineers and operators are shown in Table 1. The average hourly salary of locomotive engineers and operators in the United States is shown in Table 2. In the next few tables we compare the average salaries of locomotive engineers and operators within different industry sectors and in the 50 states of the United States. The locomotive engineers and operators annual salary statistics are from the national compensation survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2022 and published in April 2023 [1].
| Percentile Bracket | Average Annual Salary |
|---|---|
| 10th Percentile Wage | $50,410 |
| 25th Percentile Wage | $62,130 |
| 50th Percentile Wage | $73,770 |
| 75th Percentile Wage | $86,310 |
| 90th Percentile Wage | $88,870 |
Table 1 shows the average annual salary for locomotive engineers and operators. The average annual salary for the 90th percentile (the top 10 percent of the highest paid) locomotive engineers and operators is $88,870. The median annual salary (50th percentile) is $73,770. The average annual salary for the bottom 10 percent is $50,410. Note that in the United States, the annual salary of the 90th percentile (the top 10 percent of the highest paid) is almost 76% higher than that of the bottom 10 percent.
The table and chart below show the trend of the median salary of locomotive engineers and operators from 2012 to 2022.
| Year | Median Salary | Yearly Growth | 10-Year Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $73,770 | -6.66% | 31.06% |
| 2021 | $78,680 | 11.22% | - |
| 2020 | $69,850 | 6.89% | - |
| 2019 | $65,040 | 5.95% | - |
| 2018 | $61,170 | 2.22% | - |
| 2017 | $59,810 | 4.48% | - |
| 2016 | $57,130 | 3.68% | - |
| 2015 | $55,030 | 2.96% | - |
| 2014 | $53,400 | 3.15% | - |
| 2013 | $51,720 | 1.66% | - |
| 2012 | $50,860 | - | - |
The average salaries of locomotive engineers and operators in 8 major industry sectors are shown in Table 2. We note that the salaries vary considerably within different industry sectors. The highest paying industry sector for locomotive engineers and operators occupations is the transportation and warehousing sector with an annual salary $73,770. The lowest paying sector is the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector (annual salary $35,480).