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Where Does Your Mechanical Engineer Salary Sit?
Put in what you earn and see it placed against the wage distribution BLS actually publishes for SOC 17-2141: the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles, nationally or in your state.
Half of the 296,810 mechanical engineers in the BLS May 2025 survey earned less than $104,110. The bottom tenth earned $73,990 or less, the top tenth $164,340 or more. Those five numbers are the entire published shape of the distribution and they are what this tool measures against.
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 17-2141. Snapshot taken 6 September 2026.
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Every distribution here is SOC 17-2141, mechanical engineers. OEWS does not split the code by seniority, industry or discipline.
The national SOC 17-2141 distribution, BLS OEWS May 2025. Enter a salary above to place it on this scale.
P10
$74K$73,990
P25
$84K$84,130
MEDIAN
$104K$104,110
P75
$133K$132,590
P90
$164K$164,340
Published percentile anchors, state by state
The same five values the tool reads, listed in full and sorted by median. Every figure is a published BLS OEWS May 2025 estimate for SOC 17-2141; nothing in this table is interpolated. The last column is the gap between the 10th and 90th percentile, which is the honest width of the profession in that state: California spans $121,550 while Maine spans $58,840.
| Area | P10 | P25 | Median | P75 | P90 | P90 minus P10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $73,990 | $84,130 | $104,110 | $132,590 | $164,340 | $90,350 |
| New Mexico | $103,780 | $128,080 | $157,710 | $162,880 | $203,140 | $99,360 |
| District of Columbia | $86,820 | $107,300 | $133,300 | $166,360 | $195,190 | $108,370 |
| California | $82,070 | $102,360 | $130,900 | $166,580 | $203,620 | $121,550 |
| Delaware | $65,890 | $97,920 | $125,130 | $128,140 | $168,180 | $102,290 |
| Colorado | $75,100 | $95,710 | $124,430 | $149,790 | $170,810 | $95,710 |
| Alaska | $76,890 | $92,280 | $124,340 | $157,610 | $174,320 | $97,430 |
| Maryland | $79,670 | $98,300 | $122,870 | $156,560 | $176,680 | $97,010 |
| Louisiana | $70,350 | $81,790 | $119,540 | $147,560 | $181,550 | $111,200 |
| Massachusetts | $79,570 | $96,440 | $119,300 | $140,590 | $166,480 | $86,910 |
| Wyoming | $71,730 | $100,060 | $117,750 | $140,600 | $151,810 | $80,080 |
| Rhode Island | $79,000 | $99,350 | $116,230 | $154,690 | $195,190 | $116,190 |
| Texas | $75,810 | $91,420 | $112,410 | $145,090 | $175,210 | $99,400 |
| New Jersey | $79,160 | $92,750 | $112,300 | $136,910 | $162,800 | $83,640 |
| Washington | $79,400 | $94,560 | $110,430 | $139,870 | $167,680 | $88,280 |
| Vermont | $83,820 | $87,360 | $107,330 | $127,100 | $150,380 | $66,560 |
| Connecticut | $77,340 | $86,170 | $105,090 | $133,540 | $157,980 | $80,640 |
| Michigan | $76,310 | $87,640 | $104,890 | $132,160 | $159,840 | $83,530 |
| South Carolina | $74,260 | $84,810 | $104,580 | $133,480 | $166,340 | $92,080 |
| Virginia | $77,840 | $85,410 | $104,180 | $131,250 | $160,770 | $82,930 |
| New Hampshire | $72,740 | $84,210 | $103,660 | $130,120 | $165,500 | $92,760 |
| Oregon | $78,100 | $91,270 | $103,470 | $130,230 | $162,550 | $84,450 |
| Illinois | $72,150 | $83,800 | $102,680 | $130,730 | $160,160 | $88,010 |
| Nevada | $75,960 | $86,030 | $102,680 | $130,390 | $160,210 | $84,250 |
| Utah | $73,070 | $84,500 | $102,500 | $127,780 | $160,640 | $87,570 |
| New York | $74,990 | $84,400 | $102,440 | $129,410 | $160,220 | $85,230 |
| Maine | $78,440 | $83,740 | $102,430 | $127,300 | $137,280 | $58,840 |
| Oklahoma | $70,070 | $82,960 | $101,850 | $128,320 | $136,110 | $66,040 |
| Kentucky | $65,370 | $80,350 | $101,050 | $120,690 | $139,810 | $74,440 |
| North Carolina | $71,260 | $82,490 | $100,720 | $125,050 | $155,550 | $84,290 |
| Georgia | $71,940 | $80,040 | $100,620 | $128,350 | $156,320 | $84,380 |
| Arizona | $71,030 | $82,430 | $100,270 | $128,880 | $159,040 | $88,010 |
| Alabama | $72,110 | $83,800 | $100,230 | $128,100 | $162,420 | $90,310 |
| Florida | $66,260 | $79,090 | $99,980 | $128,320 | $153,950 | $87,690 |
| Indiana | $66,330 | $80,630 | $99,590 | $127,700 | $143,090 | $76,760 |
| Tennessee | $64,150 | $78,730 | $99,550 | $127,500 | $156,150 | $92,000 |
| Missouri | $64,750 | $79,540 | $99,330 | $120,990 | $142,100 | $77,350 |
| Minnesota | $75,870 | $81,860 | $99,140 | $128,690 | $151,580 | $75,710 |
| Ohio | $69,160 | $79,390 | $99,100 | $115,770 | $138,020 | $68,860 |
| Hawaii | $66,110 | $85,820 | $98,740 | $119,700 | $141,500 | $75,390 |
| Mississippi | $62,210 | $75,510 | $98,000 | $127,410 | $136,990 | $74,780 |
| Pennsylvania | $65,770 | $79,090 | $97,920 | $125,270 | $150,950 | $85,180 |
| Iowa | $71,050 | $79,770 | $97,700 | $108,580 | $137,540 | $66,490 |
| West Virginia | $64,640 | $82,910 | $97,390 | $118,490 | $143,030 | $78,390 |
| Wisconsin | $64,850 | $77,920 | $95,870 | $106,950 | $130,360 | $65,510 |
| Montana | $65,820 | $79,240 | $94,190 | $119,820 | $133,270 | $67,450 |
| Idaho | $63,660 | $76,540 | $93,190 | $108,570 | $141,020 | $77,360 |
| South Dakota | $65,130 | $77,160 | $88,380 | $106,850 | $134,140 | $69,010 |
| Nebraska | $61,860 | $74,820 | $88,060 | $108,900 | $136,870 | $75,010 |
| North Dakota | $63,930 | $77,990 | $86,330 | $114,830 | $136,060 | $72,130 |
| Kansas | $72,210 | $79,350 | $86,260 | $104,890 | $131,660 | $59,450 |
| Arkansas | $57,650 | $65,620 | $80,180 | $103,850 | $131,840 | $74,190 |
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 17-2141. Snapshot taken 6 September 2026. Public domain; Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. Licence.
How the placement is worked out
- Five anchors per area come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 files: the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentile annual wages for SOC 17-2141. Those are published values and the tool prints them unchanged.
- A salary landing exactly on one of the five is reported at that published percentile with no hedge.
- A salary between two anchors is placed by linear interpolation between them. Real wage distributions are not straight lines, so that placement is approximate; the readout says so and names the two anchors.
- Nothing is extrapolated below the 10th or above the 90th percentile. A salary outside the published range is reported as outside it rather than converted into a percentile BLS never published.
- All 51 jurisdictions publish a full set of percentiles for SOC 17-2141 in May 2025, so no area abstains here.
- OEWS measures wage and salary employment. Self-employed consulting income is outside the survey, and the figures are gross wages before bonus, equity or overtime is separated out.
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 17-2141. Snapshot taken 6 September 2026. Informational only, not career or financial advice.
Frequently asked questions
What percentile is my mechanical engineer salary?+
Nationally, BLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 17-2141 puts the 10th percentile at $73,990, the 25th at $84,130, the median at $104,110, the 75th at $132,590 and the 90th at $164,340. A salary of $104,110 sits exactly at the median, meaning half of the 296,810 mechanical engineers BLS counted earned less. The tool on this page places any figure against those five points, and against your state.
What salary puts a mechanical engineer in the top 10 percent?+
$164,340 or more nationally, per BLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 17-2141. State thresholds differ a lot: New Mexico has the highest published median at $157,710 while Arkansas has the lowest at $80,180. BLS publishes nothing above the 90th percentile, so no source can place a salary inside the top decile.
Why does the tool call a percentile approximate?+
BLS publishes five points in the distribution, not all one hundred. A salary that lands exactly on one of the five is reported at that published percentile. A salary between two of them is placed by drawing a straight line between the two published values, which approximates a curve that is not straight. Those readouts carry a tilde and name both anchors they sit between.
Does the percentile account for seniority, industry or a PE license?+
No. SOC 17-2141 is one code covering every mechanical engineer BLS surveys, from graduate hire to principal, across every industry. That is exactly why the distribution is wide: the national spread from the 10th to the 90th percentile is $90,350. For the seniority, industry and license adjustments, use the salary calculator instead.
Which states have the widest mechanical engineer pay spread?+
Measured as the gap between the published 10th and 90th percentiles, California is widest at $121,550 and Maine narrowest at $58,840. A wide spread means the state median tells you less about any individual job than it does in a compressed market.
Is this the same as the salary calculator?+
No. The calculator estimates what a role of a given shape should pay. This tool takes a salary you already have and locates it in the published distribution. One projects forward from inputs; the other benchmarks a real number against the BLS survey.