Compared with the local labor market
Mechanical Engineer pay vs. California
Across all employers in California, the median wage for Mechanical Engineers — about 30,530 people — is $130,900. Motor Vehicles pays a median base salary of $116,417 for this role, 11% below that figure — about the 37th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Motor Vehicles sits in the local pay range
$82,070
$102,360
$130,900
$166,580
$203,620
Motor Vehicles median · $116,417
The bar is the range of annual wages for Mechanical Engineers across every employer in California, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Motor Vehicles’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Mechanical Engineers — about 296,810 people — is $104,110. Motor Vehicles’s median base salary is 12% above that national figure, about the 61st percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$73,990
$84,130
$104,110
$132,590
$164,340
Motor Vehicles median · $116,417
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 California range relative to the national one.
Median total compensation for this role at Motor Vehicles is $133,973, 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
Mechanical Engineer beyond California
This role is reported in 6 jurisdictions. In California, the median of $119,214 ranks #4 of 6. See Mechanical Engineer across all of California →
Highest-paying jurisdictions for this role
Median total compensation for comparable Mechanical Engineerroles 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.