Maintenance Technicians in the San Juan area earn a median of $23,450 a year, 51% below the typical U.S. metro. That ranks #388 of 393 metros for maintenance technicians nationwide.
Within driving distance, the same work pays less in Guayama.
It's one of 6 Puerto Rico metros with published pay for this trade; see maintenance technician pay in Puerto Rico.
Maintenance Technician pay in San Juan at a glance
- Maintenance technicians in the San Juan, PR metro earn a median $23,450 a year ($11.27 an hour), #388 of 393 U.S. metros (BLS, May 2025).
- The middle 80% earn between $21,840 and $38,020.
- A typical 1-bedroom rents for $581 a month, 30% of the median pay (HUD, FY2027).
- About 9,010 maintenance technicians work in the metro.
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What this means Our calculation
Pay for maintenance technicians here is in the bottom 20% of U.S. metros.
San Juan scorecard for maintenance technicians Our calculation
Grades compare San Juan with every other U.S. metro for this trade (A = top 20%).
Pay Government data
Pay range
Shaded: the middle half of workers.
Pay over time
The median pay for maintenance technicians in the San Juan area went from $19,350 in 2020 to $23,450 in 2025, up 21.2%. Prices rose 25% over the same period, so after inflation that's -3.3% — a real pay cut.
BLS OEWS, May 2020–May 2025; inflation: CPI-U (May to May). Year-to-year changes can include survey noise.
Compared with nearby metros
Rent in San Juan
Typical rent is $581 a month for a 1-bedroom and $683 for a 2-bedroom.
What maintenance technicians do
Perform work involving the skills of two or more maintenance or craft occupations to keep machines, mechanical equipment, or the structure of a building in repair. Duties may involve pipe fitting; HVAC maintenance; insulating; welding; machining; carpentry; repairing electrical or mechanical equipment; installing, aligning, and balancing new equipment; and repairing buildings, floors, or stairs.
Most important day-to-day tasks
- Perform routine maintenance, such as inspecting drives, motors, or belts, checking fluid levels, replacing filters, or doing other preventive maintenance actions.
- Inspect, operate, or test machinery or equipment to diagnose machine malfunctions.
- Adjust functional parts of devices or control instruments, using hand tools, levels, plumb bobs, or straightedges.
- Repair machines, equipment, or structures, using tools such as hammers, hoists, saws, drills, wrenches, or equipment such as precision measuring instruments or electrical or electronic testing devices.
- Order parts, supplies, or equipment from catalogs or suppliers.
Outlook & getting started
Nationally, maintenance technician jobs are projected to grow 4.2% from 2025 to 2035 (all jobs: 3.5%), with about 148,700 openings a year. About 1% are self-employed.
What the work is like Government data
How often maintenance technicians deal with each condition, from surveys of workers in the job.
Getting started usually takes medium preparation (vocational training or an apprenticeship, often 1–2+ years).
O*NET 31.0 Work Context and Job Zones (U.S. Department of Labor), national.
Licensing in Puerto Rico Official source
Check with local authorities in Puerto Rico. Check with the building or licensing office where you plan to work.
Requirements for maintenance technicians vary by state and sometimes by city; always confirm with the official agency.
On-the-job safety Government data
Nationally, maintenance technicians have 212 injuries or illnesses serious enough to miss work per 10,000 full-time workers, 2.5× the rate for all jobs (87). The most common cause is being struck by or caught in objects and equipment.
BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, 2023–2024 (national, cases with days away from work).
Highest-paying PR metros for maintenance technicians
| Metro | Median | Real pay | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| San JuanPUERTO RICO · PR | $23,450 | — | 9,010 |
| AreciboPUERTO RICO · PR | $23,440 | — | 470 |
| GuayamaPUERTO RICO · PR | $23,220 | — | 310 |
| AguadillaPUERTO RICO · PR | $22,600 | — | 780 |
| PoncePUERTO RICO · PR | $22,330 | — | 1,080 |
| MayaguezPUERTO RICO · PR | $22,040 | — | 620 |
See every metro in Puerto Rico.
How much work is there? Government data
Getting to work
The average commute in the San Juan area is 30 minutes each way, longer than the typical metro (24 min). 22% of commuters spend 45 minutes or more. 82% drive alone, 1% take transit and 6% work from home (all workers, not just trades).
Census American Community Survey, 2024 1-year estimates (table S0801).
New construction
In 2025 the San Juan area approved permits for 1,546 new homes (1,459 single-family), or 0.8 per 1,000 residents, ranking #371 of 393 metros.
Where to train near San Juan Government data
2 schools in or near San Juan offer heavy and industrial equipment maintenance programs below the bachelor's level. Many people in this trade learn through an apprenticeship instead; a program can shorten it or get you hired as a helper.
| School | Credential | Yearly cost | Recent grads | First-year pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial Technical College Humacao, PR · Private for-profit | Certificate | $10,897 | 12 | $24,617 |
| Mech-Tech College Caguas, PR · Private for-profit | Certificate | $20,396 | — | — |
U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (data updated October 2026). Cost is the school's average yearly cost of attendance before financial aid; earnings are the median for graduates one year after finishing, shown only where the school has enough graduates to publish. “—” means not published.
Employee vs. working for yourself Your scenario
A model, not a market rate. It shows the break-even rate to match a $23,450 employee salary once you cover what an employer normally pays for (including the employer half of Social Security and Medicare, 7.65%), then adds your profit margin. Change any number.
Break-even rate
With your profit margin
How this calculator works. Weighing a contractor job against a W-2 one? Try the 1099 vs. W-2 comparison. Billable hours are hours you can charge a customer. Driving, quoting, paperwork and slow weeks aren't billable, which is why 1,400 is a common starting point versus 2,080 paid hours as an employee.
Get maintenance technician pricing & estimate templates →Compare San Juan with another city →
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ToolBest cities for maintenance techniciansRank every metro on pay, buying power, rent and jobs.Is a job offer here any good?
ToolCheck an offer in San JuanSee where it falls among local maintenance technicians, after the commute.Could you afford to live here?
ToolSan Juan budgetMonthly take-home, HUD rent and local prices on this pay.About this data
Local to the San Juan metro: pay (BLS, May 2025) and pay over time (2020–2025, CPI-adjusted), prices (BEA, 2024), rent (HUD, FY2027), new construction, housing, population and commuting (Census), unemployment (BLS) and business counts (Census, by industry). National: job outlook and training (BLS projections), injury rates (BLS) and duties (O*NET). Jobs are employment estimates, not open positions; grades rank San Juan against every other metro for maintenance technicians. Every source, year and formula is on our data page.
Report a data issue on this page
BEA doesn't publish price levels for San Juan, so real pay isn't shown. The Census doesn't publish one-person business or competition figures for maintenance technicians as a separate industry, so that section is left out.