Compared with the local labor market
Engineering Equipment Operating pay vs. the United States
Across all employers in the United States, the median wage for Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators — about 478,090 people — is $59,850. Smithsonian Institution pays a median base salary of $79,536 for this role, 33% above that figure — about the 76th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Smithsonian Institution sits in the local pay range
$42,190
$48,680
$59,850
$77,170
$101,090
Smithsonian Institution median · $79,536
The bar is the range of annual wages for Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators across every employer in the United States, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Smithsonian Institution’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
Median total compensation for this role at Smithsonian Institution is $79,975, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.