Home › Best cities › Heavy Equipment Operator

Best cities for heavy equipment operators

Rank every metro by what matters to you: pay, buying power, rent and job market

Best cities for heavy equipment operators, balanced Our calculation

With balanced priorities, Honolulu, HI ranks first for heavy equipment operators: $117,630 median pay worth $106,010 after local prices. We ranked the 386 metros with enough published heavy equipment operator data on pay, buying power, rent burden, job market size and unemployment.

  1. 1
    HonoluluHAWAII · HI · $117,630 median · $106,010 buying power · rent 20% of pay · 1,430 jobs
    91
  2. 2
    AppletonWISCONSIN · WI · $83,010 median · $89,819 buying power · rent 14% of pay · 480 jobs
    89
  3. 3
    EvansvilleINDIANA · IN · $84,500 median · $92,321 buying power · rent 12% of pay · 510 jobs
    88
  4. 4
    WaterlooIOWA · IA · $97,770 median · $112,306 buying power · rent 10% of pay · 420 jobs
    87
  5. 5
    KahuluiHAWAII · HI · $124,990 median · $114,258 buying power · rent 19% of pay · 400 jobs
    87
  6. 6
    MadisonWISCONSIN · WI · $83,060 median · $85,376 buying power · rent 19% of pay · 680 jobs
    87
  7. 7
    IndianapolisINDIANA · IN · $82,190 median · $85,887 buying power · rent 19% of pay · 3,700 jobs
    87
  8. 8
    MilwaukeeWISCONSIN · WI · $79,430 median · $81,940 buying power · rent 16% of pay · 2,070 jobs
    87
  9. 9
    St. LouisMISSOURI · MO · $82,270 median · $86,520 buying power · rent 16% of pay · 4,190 jobs
    87
  10. 10
    WausauWISCONSIN · WI · $90,900 median · $98,110 buying power · rent 12% of pay · 200 jobs
    86
  11. 11
    Fort WayneINDIANA · IN · $77,450 median · $83,665 buying power · rent 16% of pay · 650 jobs
    85
  12. 12
    LafayetteINDIANA · IN · $83,460 median · $89,329 buying power · rent 15% of pay · 340 jobs
    85
  13. 13
    Green BayWISCONSIN · WI · $76,290 median · $81,956 buying power · rent 16% of pay · 420 jobs
    84
  14. 14
    St. CloudMINNESOTA · MN · $79,530 median · $90,755 buying power · rent 15% of pay · 700 jobs
    83
  15. 15
    RacineWISCONSIN · WI · $90,320 median · $94,122 buying power · rent 14% of pay · 280 jobs
    83

Default weights: buying power 4, pay 3, rent 3, job market 2, unemployment 2. Change them below to re-rank.

Top 5 by each factor Government data

Highest pay

  1. Kahului, HI: $124,990
  2. San Francisco, CA: $124,750
  3. San Jose, CA: $124,340
  4. Honolulu, HI: $117,630
  5. Santa Rosa, CA: $105,080

Most buying power

  1. Kahului, HI: $114,258
  2. Decatur, IL: $113,682
  3. San Jose, CA: $112,603
  4. Waterloo, IA: $112,306
  5. San Francisco, CA: $107,903

Lowest rent burden

  1. Waterloo, IA: 10% of pay for a 1-bed
  2. Decatur, IL: 10% of pay for a 1-bed
  3. Rockford, IL: 11% of pay for a 1-bed
  4. Springfield, IL: 12% of pay for a 1-bed
  5. Evansville, IN: 12% of pay for a 1-bed

Most jobs

  1. Houston, TX: 14,000 employed
  2. Dallas, TX: 11,510 employed
  3. New York, NY: 11,430 employed
  4. Los Angeles, CA: 8,780 employed
  5. Atlanta, GA: 8,360 employed

See every metro on the heavy equipment operator overview.

What matters to you? Our calculation

Pick a quick start or set your own weights. Each metro gets a percentile for every factor (compared with all metros for this trade), weighted by your sliders. Nothing is estimated: a metro needs at least 4 of the 5 figures published to be ranked, and results show when one is missing.

Pay and jobs: BLS OEWS May 2025. Buying power: BEA 2024. Rent: HUD FY2027. How we calculate

How the ranking works →

Top