Highway Maintenance Workers: Salary, Job Outlook & How to Become One (2026 Parent Guide)
Construction and Extraction · SOC 47-4051 · O*NET 47-4051.00
Maintain highways, municipal and rural roads, airport runways, and rights-of-way. Duties include patching broken or eroded pavement and repairing guard rails, highway markers, and snow fences. May also mow or clear brush from along road, or plow snow from roadway.
Highway Maintenance Workers fall under the Construction and Extraction category in the U.S. occupational classification. Highway Maintenance Workers earn a median salary of $49,070 per year, ranking in the top 65% of all U.S. occupations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects +3.0% job growth through 2034, projected to grow at roughly the US average. Entry into this field typically requires an apprenticeship, technical certification, or postsecondary training, with specific licensing or certification depending on the state and employer. For parents whose teenager is exploring this path, the most actionable step is mapping the education requirements to specific colleges and majors before junior year — not waiting until application season.
What do highway maintenance workers earn?
The median annual wage for highway maintenance workers is $49,070. That puts highway maintenance workers at #528 on the BLS ranked list of all U.S. occupations by median pay. This salary is around or below the U.S. median for individual workers, so career growth often depends on advancement into supervisory roles, specialization, or additional credentials. Actual pay varies meaningfully by state, employer type, and years of experience — entry-level salaries are typically 30–40% below the median, while top-decile earners often exceed it by 50% or more.
| 10th percentile (entry-level) | $35,030 |
| 25th percentile | $41,540 |
| 50th percentile (median) | $49,070 |
| 75th percentile | $59,600 |
| 90th percentile (top earners) | $69,210 |
| Median hourly wage | $23.59/hr |
Is highway maintenance workers a growing career?
The 10-year outlook for highway maintenance workers is +3.0%, projected to grow at roughly the US average. Employment is projected to move from approximately 159K positions in 2024 to 163K in 2034, a net change of 4K. Average growth signals a healthy, resilient occupation that mirrors broader U.S. employment trends. Job availability tends to track regional economic conditions.
What do highway maintenance workers do every day?
According to O*NET task surveys of working highway maintenance workers, these are the core responsibilities most professionals perform. This is what your teen would actually be doing in this role.
- 1.Set out signs and cones around work areas to divert traffic.
- 2.Drive trucks to transport crews and equipment to work sites.
- 3.Erect, install, or repair guardrails, road shoulders, berms, highway markers, warning signals, and highway lighting, using hand tools and power tools.
- 4.Drive heavy equipment and vehicles with adjustable attachments to sweep debris from paved surfaces, mow grass and weeds, remove snow and ice, and spread salt and sand.
- 5.Haul and spread sand, gravel, and clay to fill washouts and repair road shoulders.
- 6.Perform roadside landscaping work, such as clearing weeds and brush, and planting and trimming trees.
- 7.Perform preventative maintenance on vehicles and heavy equipment.
- 8.Dump, spread, and tamp asphalt, using pneumatic tampers, to repair joints and patch broken pavement.
Top skills for highway maintenance workers
O*NET ranks these as the most important skills for this occupation, on a 1–5 importance scale derived from worker surveys.
What education does my child need to become highway maintenance worker?
Highway Maintenance Workers typically enter the field through a formal apprenticeship, technical certification, or vocational training program — a strong fit for teens who prefer hands-on learning over traditional college. For parents helping a teen prepare, the highest-leverage step before junior year is identifying colleges and programs that feed reliably into this occupation — Solyo's college search lets parents filter by major and admissions data side by side.
Based on O*NET surveys of incumbents — what people in this job actually have, not what employers list as required.
Related careers your child might also consider
How parents help teens explore careers like this
Solyo helps parents map a teen's interests to specific careers, then back to the colleges and majors that lead there. Salary, outlook, and education data come from BLS and O*NET — the same sources high school counselors use — but presented for the parent's planning lens, not the student's exploration view.
Common questions parents ask about highway maintenance workers
What is the median salary for highway maintenance workers?
The median annual salary for highway maintenance workers is $49,070 according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Is highway maintenance workers a growing career?
BLS projects +3.0% growth for highway maintenance workers from 2024 through 2034, which is average growth projected to grow at roughly the US average.
What education does my child need to become highway maintenance worker?
The typical entry path requires an apprenticeship, technical certification, or postsecondary training, plus any state licensure or certification specific to the role. Programs that align well with this career can be filtered inside Solyo's college search.
What careers are similar to highway maintenance workers?
Related occupations within the Construction and Extraction category share education paths and skill profiles, so they're a useful starting set when a teen is uncertain. The "Related careers" section below lists nearby options.
Salary data sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics program. Skills, tasks, and education distribution from the O*NET database. Job outlook from the BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034 release.