The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 2,062,040 heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in its May 2025 survey. The median one earned $58,640 a year ($28.19 an hour); the bottom tenth earned under $40,140 and the top tenth over $79,380. Light truck drivers, the second occupation the BLS tracks, had a median of $44,860. Every number on this page comes from that survey, and the state table below covers all 50 states and the District of Columbia. What the figures do not show, and what a company's advertised "up to" pay means, is explained after the tables.
The national numbers
The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme surveys employers, not drivers, twice a year and publishes the May estimates the following spring. Two occupations cover trucking. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (code 53-3032) drive vehicles with a capacity of at least 26,001 pounds GVWR, which is the CDL population. Light truck drivers (53-3033) drive smaller delivery trucks and vans; most need no CDL. Self-employed owner-operators are not in either figure, because the survey counts wage and salary employees only.
| Heavy and tractor-trailer (53-3032) | Light truck (53-3033) | |
|---|---|---|
| Employment | 2,062,040 | 983,300 |
| Mean annual wage | $59,710 | $48,770 |
| Mean hourly wage | $28.71 | $23.45 |
| 10th percentile | $40,140 | $30,800 |
| 25th percentile | $47,960 | $37,270 |
| Median (50th) | $58,640 | $44,860 |
| 75th percentile | $69,120 | $52,310 |
| 90th percentile | $79,380 | $80,310 |
The BLS turns hourly figures into annual ones by multiplying by 2,080 hours, a 40-hour week for 52 weeks. Drivers who are paid by the mile are converted the same way from what employers report, so the annual figure is a full-time-year figure, not a promise about any one driver's year. Mean is above median because a minority of high earners pulls the average up; the median is the better answer to "what does a typical driver make".
By week and by hour, from the same medians: $1,128 a week and $28.19 an hour for a heavy-truck driver, $863 a week and $21.57 an hour for a light-truck driver.
Truck driver salary by state
Heavy and tractor-trailer drivers, May 2025, ranked by median annual wage. The employment column is the number of wage and salary drivers the BLS counted in the state.
| State | Median annual | Mean annual | Mean hourly | Drivers employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | $70,100 | $69,520 | $33.42 | 3,420 |
| Washington | $64,760 | $68,230 | $32.80 | 40,530 |
| District of Columbia | $64,170 | $67,710 | $32.55 | 830 |
| New Jersey | $63,570 | $66,770 | $32.10 | 47,980 |
| Massachusetts | $63,030 | $63,570 | $30.56 | 30,890 |
| Nevada | $62,290 | $65,010 | $31.25 | 15,010 |
| New York | $62,050 | $65,780 | $31.63 | 63,700 |
| Minnesota | $61,990 | $63,630 | $30.59 | 38,770 |
| Oregon | $61,980 | $64,080 | $30.81 | 23,970 |
| Colorado | $61,500 | $63,650 | $30.60 | 25,350 |
| North Dakota | $60,910 | $63,330 | $30.45 | 11,870 |
| Vermont | $60,830 | $61,100 | $29.37 | 3,560 |
| Utah | $60,620 | $60,900 | $29.28 | 25,060 |
| Connecticut | $60,490 | $61,980 | $29.80 | 15,740 |
| Illinois | $60,320 | $62,430 | $30.01 | 84,200 |
| Wyoming | $60,310 | $63,180 | $30.37 | 6,050 |
| Indiana | $60,290 | $60,950 | $29.30 | 59,090 |
| New Hampshire | $60,280 | $60,600 | $29.13 | 6,960 |
| California | $60,230 | $62,020 | $29.82 | 205,090 |
| Rhode Island | $60,190 | $59,660 | $28.68 | 3,620 |
| Hawaii | $59,820 | $60,850 | $29.26 | 4,070 |
| Ohio | $59,800 | $60,660 | $29.16 | 83,060 |
| Maryland | $59,360 | $60,590 | $29.13 | 29,150 |
| Kansas | $58,920 | $60,480 | $29.08 | 24,220 |
| Montana | $58,870 | $59,180 | $28.45 | 7,830 |
| Idaho | $58,770 | $59,160 | $28.44 | 15,920 |
| South Dakota | $58,690 | $58,550 | $28.15 | 6,470 |
| Tennessee | $58,620 | $60,440 | $29.06 | 64,890 |
| Wisconsin | $58,610 | $58,890 | $28.31 | 53,330 |
| Pennsylvania | $58,580 | $59,640 | $28.67 | 87,550 |
| Nebraska | $58,390 | $60,070 | $28.88 | 23,160 |
| Arizona | $58,080 | $58,870 | $28.30 | 40,150 |
| Iowa | $58,070 | $60,070 | $28.88 | 35,040 |
| Delaware | $57,590 | $57,380 | $27.59 | 9,040 |
| Michigan | $57,180 | $56,370 | $27.10 | 60,800 |
| Georgia | $57,050 | $57,780 | $27.78 | 74,840 |
| Maine | $57,050 | $55,980 | $26.91 | 9,980 |
| Virginia | $56,860 | $57,770 | $27.78 | 48,750 |
| Kentucky | $56,340 | $59,870 | $28.78 | 31,760 |
| Texas | $56,290 | $57,990 | $27.88 | 209,680 |
| Missouri | $54,550 | $56,830 | $27.32 | 47,760 |
| Oklahoma | $54,410 | $57,670 | $27.73 | 27,840 |
| Alabama | $52,120 | $56,230 | $27.03 | 36,650 |
| Mississippi | $51,820 | $55,910 | $26.88 | 24,160 |
| Arkansas | $51,550 | $57,390 | $27.59 | 32,220 |
| North Carolina | $51,530 | $55,810 | $26.83 | 62,400 |
| South Carolina | $51,130 | $55,680 | $26.77 | 34,170 |
| Florida | $50,640 | $54,850 | $26.37 | 112,920 |
| New Mexico | $50,500 | $53,100 | $25.53 | 11,820 |
| West Virginia | $49,480 | $52,440 | $25.21 | 12,190 |
| Louisiana | $49,320 | $51,930 | $24.96 | 28,540 |
Reading the table: Alaska leads on the median ($70,100), followed by Washington, District of Columbia, New Jersey and Massachusetts. The lowest medians are in Louisiana ($49,320), West Virginia, New Mexico, Florida and South Carolina. The gap between top and bottom is about $20,780 a year before the cost of living, which in the high-wage states takes back a good part of it. The states with the most driving jobs are Texas (209,680), California (205,090), Florida (112,920), Pennsylvania (87,550), Illinois (84,200); a big market is easier to find work in than a high median is to move for.
The state figure is the state of the employer's establishment. A driver who lives in one state and runs for a carrier based in another is counted where the carrier's terminal is.
How truck drivers are paid
The survey reports what employers pay, not how they calculate it. Four methods cover most jobs, and which one a job uses changes what the advertised number means.
- Per mile. The standard for over-the-road and regional dry van, reefer and flatbed. Pay is a cents-per-mile rate times the miles run. The question to ask is which miles: practical miles (the route actually driven), household-goods miles (a shorter, zip-code-to-zip-code calculation that pays less for the same trip), or hub miles from the odometer. Deadhead (empty) miles are often paid at a lower rate or not at all. Time spent loading, at the shipper, in the shop or in a weather shutdown pays nothing unless the contract has accessorial pay for it.
- Per hour. Local and LTL (less-than-truckload) driving, food service, tanker and most union work. Waiting time is paid, so hourly jobs with lower headline rates often net more per week than a per-mile job with heavy detention.
- Percentage of the load. Common for flatbed, specialised and owner-operators leased to a carrier: the driver receives a set share of the linehaul revenue, typically with fuel surcharge passed through. Pay rises with freight rates and falls with them.
- Salary or day rate. Dedicated accounts, some private fleets, and team and specialised operations. A weekly guarantee with a mileage or stop component on top.
Accessorial pay sits on top of any of these: stop pay, detention (after a free period, usually two hours), layover, breakdown, tarping, hazmat or reefer premiums, and safety or fuel bonuses. In a per-mile job the accessorials and the bonuses decide whether the driver reaches the advertised annual figure.
Do truck drivers get overtime?
Most do not, and the reason is a statute, not a company policy. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires time-and-a-half after 40 hours in a week (29 U.S.C. 207(a)), but 29 U.S.C. 213(b)(1) removes from that rule "any employee with respect to whom the Secretary of Transportation has power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service pursuant to the provisions of section 31502 of title 49". That is the Motor Carrier Act exemption. It covers drivers, driver's helpers, loaders and mechanics whose work affects the safety of operation of motor vehicles in interstate commerce for a motor carrier or motor private carrier. The federal hours-of-service rules apply to those employees instead; the two regimes do not overlap.
The exemption has a weight floor. Since the SAFETEA-LU Technical Corrections Act of 2008 (Pub. L. 110-244, section 306, set out in the notes to 29 U.S.C. 207), the overtime requirement applies "notwithstanding section 13(b)(1)" to a "covered employee": one employed by a motor carrier whose work is that of a driver, driver's helper, loader or mechanic on vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less, unless the vehicle carries more than 8 passengers for compensation, more than 15 passengers not for compensation, or placarded hazardous materials. A driver whose work is split between a 9,000-pound van and a 26,000-pound truck is a covered employee for the work on the small vehicle.
Three things follow. A CDL driver on an interstate route can lawfully be paid 60 or 70 hours at straight time, whatever the pay method. Purely intrastate drivers are outside 49 U.S.C. 31502 and so outside the federal exemption unless their state has its own, and several states (California among them) require overtime for them. And the exemption is about overtime only: the minimum wage still applies to every hour, which is why per-mile drivers who sit unpaid for long stretches have brought minimum-wage claims. The federal hours limits themselves are on the hours of service page.
Owner-operator pay after expenses
An owner-operator is not in the BLS wage figures. Gross revenue for a leased owner-operator is the percentage or per-mile settlement from the carrier; for one with own authority it is the freight rate. What is left after the truck payment, insurance, fuel beyond any surcharge, tires, maintenance, permits, the 2290 heavy vehicle use tax, self-employment tax and the days the truck does not move is the pay. Whether that beats a company job depends on the rates in the lanes run and on the truck; the arithmetic is on the cost per mile calculator, the lease and authority choice on the owner-operator page, and what can be deducted on the tax deductions page. Per diem for nights away, $80 a day in the continental US under the IRS transportation-industry rate, is a deduction for the self-employed and a reimbursement plan for company drivers; the per diem calculator works it out.
Reading a job advertisement
- "Up to $90,000" is the top of the range for the top driver in the best year. Ask for the average for drivers in their first 12 months, and the average weekly miles.
- A cents-per-mile rate means nothing without the miles: 60 cents a mile at 2,000 miles a week is $62,400 a year; at 2,800 it is $87,360; at 1,500 in a slow quarter it is $46,800 annualised.
- Ask which mileage basis is paid, and whether deadhead is paid at the same rate.
- Ask what detention pays, when it starts, and how often it is actually paid.
- Sign-on bonuses are usually paid in instalments over 6 to 12 months and forfeited on leaving; treat them as deferred pay, not cash.
- "Paid training" for a new CDL usually comes with a contract that repays the training cost if the driver leaves early; the route to the licence is on the how to get a CDL page, and the schools are in the CDL training directory.
Which endorsements and segments pay more
The BLS does not split its figure by freight type, so the following is direction, not data. Tanker and hazmat work pays a premium because fewer drivers hold the endorsements (the endorsements page lists what each requires); flatbed and oversize pay for the tarping and securement; teams share a truck that runs almost continuously; LTL linehaul and union carriers sit at the top of the hourly market; and specialised work such as car hauling, fuel and cryogenics is near the 90th percentile in most years. The first year in any segment pays least, because the new driver gets the least desirable freight and the fewest miles.
Common mistakes
- Comparing a per-mile offer with an hourly one on the headline rate. Convert both to a realistic weekly figure with the miles and the waiting time each actually involves.
- Reading the BLS mean as typical pay. Use the median; the mean is lifted by the top decile.
- Treating the state table as a reason to relocate. Check housing costs and the number of jobs, and remember the figure is where the carrier is, not where the driver lives.
- Expecting overtime. Interstate CDL drivers are exempt under 29 U.S.C. 213(b)(1); only the small-vehicle and some intrastate cases get it.
- Counting a sign-on bonus as first-month income.
The figures on this page are the May 2025 estimates and will be replaced when the BLS publishes May 2026 in spring 2027.