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About MechanicalEngineerSalary.com
An independent mechanical engineer salary reference anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS data for SOC 17-2141. We translate the official wage tables into the questions engineers actually ask: what does the job pay, where, in which industry, at which experience level, with which degree, and with the PE license or without.
Why this site exists
The BLS publishes a national median for mechanical engineers each May ($102,320 in the May 2024 release for SOC 17-2141). That number is useful but it is also lonely. It does not tell you whether $102,320 is the right ask for an oil and gas role in Texas, an aerospace role in Washington, or an entry-level role at a defense contractor in Alabama. It does not tell you whether a PE license is worth the time and exam fees, whether a master's degree pays for itself, or whether your annual raise is keeping pace with the curve.
The other widely cited sources each solve part of the problem and skip the rest. Glassdoor and Indeed surface self-reported user data alongside sponsored job listings; the numbers are noisy and the editorial line is blurred. Payscale offers detailed segmentation but its calculator output is paywalled behind email capture. Levels.fyi is excellent for tech-employer total compensation but covers maybe twenty companies that hire mechanical engineers, mostly in California and Washington. ASME publishes a respected annual salary survey that members reach by paying dues. None of these stitches the BLS percentile data together with industry multipliers, state cost-of-living, the PE license premium, internship effects, and the BS / MS / PhD differential in a single free reference.
That stitching is what this site does. Every page leads with a BLS-anchored number, then layers the documented factors that move it.
Who builds this
MechanicalEngineerSalary.com is built and maintained by Oliver Wakefield-Smith at Digital Signet, an independent web operation that publishes data-anchored reference sites across compensation, infrastructure cost, and career decision economics. Digital Signet does not place engineers, does not run a job board, does not sell recruiting services, and does not operate paid placements on any of its sites.
Sister salary references in the portfolio include mlengineersalary.com, psychologistsalary.com, schoolcounselorsalary.com, and productmanagersalary.com. Each is built to the same editorial standard.
Editorial position
Independent. Not a recruiter. Not a job board affiliate. Not a school lead-gen funnel. Not a sponsored content placement for engineering employers. We are a free reference paid for by Digital Signet's broader publishing operation, not by anyone with a stake in your salary outcome.
That means a few things in practice. If oil and gas pays best for entry-level mechanical engineers, we say so even though no oil and gas recruiter is paying us to. If a PhD does not pay back for most mechanical engineers outside R&D and national-lab roles, we say so even though no university is going to thank us for it. If a $72,000 offer in Michigan beats an $85,000 offer in California once you account for cost of living, we show the math.
What this site covers
Home
BLS median, percentile range, calculator
By State
All 50 states plus DC ranked
By Industry
14 sectors from oil & gas to manufacturing
By Company
Tesla, Boeing, Apple, 17 more
By Experience
Entry-level through 20+ years
Entry Level
$62K-$78K first-offer math
Senior Level
Staff, principal, director bands
Salary Calculator
BLS-weighted estimator
vs Other Engineers
Electrical, civil, software, more
Education and Certifications
BS, MS, PhD, PE license premium
Negotiation
Scripts, tactics, and average yield
Job Outlook
BLS 9% growth projection 2024-34
Editorial principles
BLS-anchored data
Every salary figure on this site traces back to a citable BLS OEWS table for SOC 17-2141 (Mechanical Engineers) or a named industry survey. No synthesised numbers, no rounded averages of unsourced inputs.
No paid placements
No sponsored content, no "top picks" sold to vendors, no compensation aggregator paying for visibility. If a sister site or recruiter is mentioned, it is on editorial merit.
No affiliate parameters
Outbound links to BLS, ASME, NSPE, Levels.fyi, and other sources are plain links. We do not earn referral fees on engineer career decisions.
Monthly verification
BLS OEWS releases annually each spring; we verify the figures against the most recent publication in the first business week of each month and refresh the LAST_VERIFIED date in lockstep. Currently verified May 2026.
Single-source freshness
The "Updated" date in the footer and the dateModified inside every page's JSON-LD schema are driven from one constant. When we refresh data, every dated string on the site rolls forward together.
Percentile honesty
The BLS publishes 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile wages. We surface the full range, not just the median, because individual outcomes depend on industry, state, employer, and experience, and a single number hides that.
Methodology in brief
Every page anchors on BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data for SOC 17-2141 (Mechanical Engineers). The May 2024 release provides national and state-level wages at five percentiles (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th) and industry-level wages for the largest employer NAICS codes. Industry pages cite that data verbatim. State pages add a cost-of-living overlay using state-level COL indices. The salary calculator applies experience and industry multipliers derived from the same percentile distribution.
Where the BLS data is silent (PE license premium, internship effects, big-tech total compensation), we cite named secondary sources: ASME annual salary survey, NSPE professional engineer studies, NACE Job Outlook Survey, Levels.fyi total comp data, Glassdoor and Payscale triangulation, Engineering Education Service Center new-grad reference. Full source list and per-calculation rationale on the methodology page.
Contact and corrections
Spotted a number that does not match the BLS source you have in front of you? Found a stale citation, a broken sister-site link, or a calculation you cannot reproduce? Send the page URL plus the discrepancy to [email protected]. We reply within five business days and update the page in the next monthly verification cycle (or sooner if the correction is material).
Disclosures: MechanicalEngineerSalary.com is a property of Digital Signet. We do not place engineers, do not operate a job board, and do not receive compensation from employers, recruiters, or engineering schools. Outbound links to BLS, ASME, NSPE, Levels.fyi, Payscale, and Glassdoor are plain reference links with no affiliate parameters.