Mechanical Engineer Salary in Massachusetts

The headline number, in context

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics tables for SOC 17-2141 (mechanical engineers), May 2024 release, report a Massachusetts annual mean wage of $115,540 for 8,900 employed engineers. That puts Massachusetts sixth nationally by mean pay, behind DC, New Mexico, Alaska, California, and Washington. The state sits 13.8 percent above the national mean of $101,560 and 12.9 percent above the national median of $102,320.

Massachusetts has three distinct ME labor sub-markets, and the headline number averages across all of them. The Andover-Tewksbury-Waltham corridor (under the Lowell-Lawrence metro on BLS tables) hosts Raytheon Technologies, the single largest ME employer in the state, with around 4,000 engineers working on integrated air defense systems, missile electronics, and radar. The Boston-Cambridge biotech belt runs from Boston Scientific in Marlborough through Stryker in Mansfield, through Smith and Nephew's regional operations, through the medical-device startup density in Kendall Square. And the Draper Laboratory plus MIT Lincoln Laboratory pair is the largest federally funded R&D engineering employer in New England outside of NASA's Langley campus.

Metro-by-metro pay

BLS publishes metro-level OES tables alongside the state file. The five major Massachusetts metros with measurable ME employment are shown below. The pattern is consistent: pay scales with the concentration of defense and life-sciences employers in that metro, not the population.

Lowell-Lawrence at $113,700 is the surprise on this table for engineers who do not know the Massachusetts defense industry. The metro is small by population, but the Raytheon Andover Integrated Air Defense Center concentrates roughly 4,000 mechanical engineers (across all SOC codes, not just ME) on Patriot, NASAMS, and SM-3 missile programs. Engineers there sit on the same pay bands as Boston-Cambridge biotech engineers without the I-93 commute.

Industries that drive Massachusetts ME pay

Massachusetts's mechanical engineering labor market looks structurally different from Texas's or Michigan's because of the absence of motor vehicle manufacturing, the dominance of defense, and the depth of medical-device firms. The state has the highest concentration of medical-device manufacturing per capita in the US (FDA Boston-area NDC registrations confirm this), which sustains a parallel ME labor market for design, packaging, and process engineering at premium pay.

The biggest single pay lever in Massachusetts is the choice between defense (with clearance) and medical devices. Both pay in the $115,000 to $125,000 mean range at senior bands. Defense offers slightly better long-term stability and pension benefits at the largest primes, while medical devices offer faster product cycles, more equity exposure at growth-stage companies, and a clearer path into product management. The third option, federally funded R&D (Draper, Lincoln Lab), pays comparably to defense and is the strongest fit for engineers with MS or PhD backgrounds who want to publish.

The cost-of-living math, honestly

Massachusetts has the third-highest housing-cost share of any state, behind California and Hawaii. Using Regional Price Parities published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the cost of living index for the state runs around 132 (where 100 is the national average), with Boston-Cambridge at 148 and Worcester at 115. The math below converts nominal pay to the equivalent national purchasing power.

Boston-Cambridge's $122,300 mean adjusts to roughly $82,635 in national-equivalent purchasing power, which is below the BLS national mean. The Lowell-Lawrence metro at $113,700 with COL 132 adjusts to about $86,136. Worcester at $105,200 with COL 115 adjusts to about $91,478, the best major-metro figure in the state. Springfield is the only Massachusetts metro where ME pay outpaces the cost of living on an adjusted basis.

PE licensing in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Board of Registration of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors licenses engineers under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 112 Sections 81D to 81T. The path is the standard four steps: ABET-accredited BS, FE exam (typically taken senior year), four years of qualifying experience under a licensed PE, then the PE exam. The Massachusetts initial application fee is $134, biennial renewal is $86, and the NCEES PE exam fee runs around $375. PE-licensed MEs in Massachusetts consulting and HVAC roles typically earn $12,000 to $20,000 more than unlicensed peers at the same experience level, per industry survey data summarised on the education and certifications page. In defense, hardware, and biotech, PE licensure adds little or no compensation premium because the work product is not signed under the engineer's seal.

Cross-state context

Massachusetts's situation is best understood next to the other large East Coast ME employment markets. New York pays a state mean of $106,850 with a COL index of 127, adjusted to about $84,134. Connecticut pays $113,320 with COL 123, adjusted to about $92,130. New Jersey pays $112,150 with COL 121, adjusted to about $92,686. Massachusetts's adjusted pay of $87,530 trails Connecticut and New Jersey despite the higher nominal, because of the Boston-area housing premium. The compensating factor is the size and depth of the labor market: Massachusetts has more medical-device firms within a 30-mile radius of Boston than any other US metro, and the defense cluster at Raytheon is the largest single-prime ME employer on the East Coast.

For engineers earlier in their careers, Massachusetts is an unusually strong choice for breadth: a five-year stint at Raytheon, Boston Scientific, or Draper leaves a candidate with credibility that opens doors anywhere in the country. For senior engineers with school-age children, the relative compensation in Connecticut's Pratt and Whitney corridor or in New Hampshire's BAE and L3Harris orbit (with no state income tax) often produces a higher savings rate and a similar career profile.

Frequently asked questions