Compared with the local labor market
Heavy Equipment Operator pay vs. the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI area
Across all employers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI area, the median wage for Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators — about 4,270 people — is $83,340. Public Works pays a median base salary of $63,554 for this role, 24% below that figure — about the 15th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Public Works sits in the local pay range
$60,100
$69,990
$83,340
$100,820
$104,250
Public Works median · $63,554
The bar is the range of annual wages for Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators across every employer in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Public Works’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. Public Works’s median base salary is 6% above that national figure, about the 55th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$42,190
$48,680
$59,850
$77,170
$101,090
Public Works median · $63,554
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 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 44 of 56 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 Public Works is $62,644, 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 jurisdictions
Heavy Equipment Operator beyond Ramsey County, Minnesota
This role is reported in 12 jurisdictions. In Ramsey County, Minnesota, the median of $62,644 ranks #3 of 12. See Heavy Equipment Operator across all of Ramsey County, Minnesota →
Highest-paying jurisdictions for this role
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.