Robotics workforce
Plant machinery mechanics: $63,510 median, 538,300 jobs, +13%
$63,510 is the median annual wage for industrial machinery mechanics, machinery maintenance workers, and millwrights, the people who keep plant equipment, including robot cells, running. That works out to $30.53 an hour.
The BLS counts 538,300 of these jobs and projects 13% growth over the decade, much faster than the average for all occupations, a gain of about 69,200 positions. Demand for the maintenance trades is holding up as factories automate.
This page traces the pay and outlook to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and explains why this broad line is the closest official wage figure for robot-cell upkeep, even though it is a general maintenance occupation rather than a robot-specific one. The number is real and useful; the caveat is just about what it does and does not cover.
Data covers BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook; wages May 2024 and projections 2024 to 2034. Published 2026-07-25. Last reviewed 2026-07-25. Last updated 2026-07-25. Edited by Mike Ramsey / Reliable Media.
The figures and where they come from
Each figure is rated for how safely you can cite it today. Ratings judge current usability, not whether a number was ever correct.
| Figure | What it is | Source | Citation Confidence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $63,510 | Median annual wage | [A] | High | Median annual wage; half the field earns more and half less. |
| $30.53 | Median hourly wage | [A] | High | Median hourly equivalent. |
| 538,300 jobs | Employment level | [A] | High | Current employment across the broad maintenance occupation. |
| +13% | Projected employment growth | [A] | High | Much faster than average. |
| +69,200 jobs | Projected employment change | [A] | Medium | Projected job gain over the decade; an outlook figure that gets revised. |
Why the numbers disagree
There is no BLS occupation called robot maintenance technician, so wage claims about robot upkeep have to borrow from a broader line. Industrial machinery mechanics, maintenance workers, and millwrights is that line, and it covers far more than robots: pumps, conveyors, presses, and packaging gear all sit inside the same $63,510 median.
A median is the midpoint, not what any single worker earns. Half the field makes more than $63,510 and half less, and the spread by state, industry, and shift is wide. Quote the median as a center of gravity, and expect real offers above and below it.
The 13% growth and the 69,200-job gain are projections over a ten-year window, not booked hires. They rate a notch lower for citation because outlook figures get revised as the labor market moves, while the wage and the current employment count are measured.
How to cite these figures
Cite the pay as a $63,510 median, or $30.53 an hour, from the BLS, and label it as the broad machinery-maintenance line rather than a robot-only wage. Naming the occupation up front is what makes the figure defensible when someone checks it.
Give the survey vintage for the wage and the projection window for the growth, since the BLS updates the two on different clocks. Pairing a current-year wage with a decade-long outlook without saying so is where these citations usually slip.
Watch the denominator: 538,300 jobs and 69,200 added positions cover all machinery maintenance, so do not present them as a count of robot technicians specifically. The robot-only slice is smaller and is not something the BLS breaks out.
Where people go wrong
Selling $63,510 as a robot-technician salary. It is the median for a much broader maintenance occupation that spans most plant equipment.
Treating the median as a floor or as a top-of-scale figure. It is the midpoint, with wide spread around it by region, industry, and shift.
Quoting the 13% growth without the ten-year window, which makes a decade-long projection sound like a current-year jump. Growth over a decade and growth in one year are different claims, and only one of them is what the BLS printed here.
How we checked
We opened the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for industrial machinery mechanics, machinery maintenance workers, and millwrights and matched each value in its text: the $63,510 median, the $30.53 hourly rate, 538,300 jobs, 13% projected growth, and the 69,200-job change.
The measured figures, wage and current employment, rate High. The decade projection and its job-count change rate Medium, because the BLS revises outlook numbers as conditions shift and today's estimate can move.
We treated this line as a proxy on purpose and said so, rather than implying the BLS tracks robot maintenance as its own occupation. It does not, and the honest move is to name the broader occupation the number actually describes.
Full source list
Primary sources, with live links. Every figure above traces to one of these.
- [A]U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics2025
Industrial Machinery Mechanics, Machinery Maintenance Workers, and Millwrights – OOH
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/installation-maintenance-and-repair/industrial-machinery-mechanics-and-maintenance-workers-and-millwrights.htm
Common questions
- What do industrial machinery mechanics earn?
- A median of $63,510 a year, or $30.53 an hour, per the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Half the field earns more and half less.
- Is this a robot-specific occupation?
- No. It is the broad line for machinery mechanics, maintenance workers, and millwrights, which is the closest official wage figure for the people who keep robot cells and other plant equipment running.
- How fast is the field growing?
- The BLS projects 13% growth over the decade, much faster than average, adding about 69,200 jobs to the 538,300 that exist now.
- Can I quote this as a robot technician salary?
- Only with the caveat that it covers all machinery maintenance, not robots alone. There is no separate BLS robot-technician wage to cite in its place.
More data, traced to source
- Who keeps the robots running, and what they earn: $64,520
The people who keep factory robots and machinery running are industrial machinery mechanics: 439,600 of them, a median of $64,520 a year, in a field growing much faster than average. A different, larger job than 'robotics technician.'
- Electro-mechanical technician pay and jobs: the BLS numbers
The BLS tracks electro-mechanical and mechatronics technologists and technicians, the closest official occupation to a robotics maintenance tech. Median pay is about $70,760, with roughly 15,000 jobs and slow growth ahead.
- Welder pay and outlook: $51,000 median, 457,300 jobs, +2%
US welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers have a median wage of $51,000 and about 457,300 jobs, with employment projected to grow 2% over the BLS 10-year horizon, per the Occupational Outlook Handbook. These are the human occupation figures, so they are not a robot-displacement forecast.