Highway Maintenance Worker III

Operate, maintain, and repair equipment or facilities, performing skilled hands-on work.

346 employees hold this title in Department of Transportation. Median total compensation for the role is $54,972, below the department median of $63,481.

Employees: 346
Total payroll: $19.2M
Role median: $54,972
Agency median: $63,481
Comparison: Below

What the records show

Role pay distribution

Pay distribution for this role

$50,960$63,400+

Hover a bar for its range; click to filter the list below.

How total compensation varies among the 346 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

Highway Maintenance Worker III pay vs. South Carolina

Across all employers in South Carolina, the median wage for Highway Maintenance Workers — about 2,290 people — is $48,130. Department of Transportation pays a median base salary of $55,818 for this role, 16% above that figure — about the 79th percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Where Department of Transportation sits in the local pay range

10th

25th

Median

75th

90th

$37,740

$42,910

$48,130

$53,880

$60,780

Department of Transportation median · $55,818

The bar is the range of annual wages for Highway Maintenance Workers across every employer in South Carolina, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Department of Transportation’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.

And across the country

Nationwide, the median wage for Highway Maintenance Workers — about 154,960 people — is $50,260. Department of Transportation’s median base salary is 11% above that national figure, about the 63rd percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.

10th

25th

Median

75th

90th

$36,230

$43,500

$50,260

$61,040

$71,970

Department of Transportation median · $55,818

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 South Carolina range relative to the national one.

Computed over the 933 of 937 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 Department of Transportation is $55,938, 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.

Record list