City of Baltimore / Dpw-Water & Waste Water / Heavy Equipment Operator I
Job-title file
Operate, maintain, and repair equipment or facilities, performing skilled hands-on work.
17 employees hold this title in Dpw-Water & Waste Water. Median total compensation for the role is $38,028, below the department median of $45,311.
What the records show
How total compensation varies among the 17 people in this role. Even for one job title, pay differs with seniority, step, overtime, and tenure. Each bar is a pay range; the far-right bar collects the highest earners.
Compared with the local labor market
Across all employers in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD area, the median wage for Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators — about 3,350 people — is $60,740. Dpw-Water & Waste Water pays a median base salary of $46,300 for this role, 24% below that figure — below the 10th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
The bar is the range of annual wages for Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators across every employer in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Dpw-Water & Waste Water’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators — about 478,090 people — is $59,850. Dpw-Water & Waste Water’s median base salary is 23% below that national figure, about the 19th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 58 of 59 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.
Median total compensation for this role at Dpw-Water & Waste Water is $46,077, 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.
Compare departments
Heavy Equipment Operator I is held in 13 City of Baltimore departments. In Dpw-Water & Waste Water, the median of $38,028 ranks #10 of 13.
Median total compensation for the Heavy Equipment Operator I role in other City of Baltimoredepartments (highest first). Each bar links to that department’s page for this role.
Compare jurisdictions
This role is reported in 12 jurisdictions. In City of Baltimore, the median of $51,783 ranks #6 of 12. See Heavy Equipment Operator across all of City of Baltimore →
Median total compensation for comparable Heavy Equipment Operatorroles in other jurisdictions. Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for the role.
Record list
Page 1
Heavy Equipment Operator I/Dpw-Water & Waste Water
Source-specific fields
Kerney Lindsey works as a Heavy Equipment Operator I for Dpw-Water & Waste Water. They have served since 1992 (about 22 years). Kerney earned $63,625 in 2014.