Robotics workforce
What a robotics technician actually earns, and why the wage is hard to find
$73,900 a year is the median pay for the job most people mean by 'robotics technician.' Almost no one cites it correctly, because the U.S. government does not publish a wage under that name.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics folds robotics technicians into a broader occupation, Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians, and reports the wage only for that whole category. In 2025 the median works out to $35.53 an hour.
This page traces the wage, the employment count, and the job outlook to the government data behind them, and explains why the specific title you searched for does not have its own number.
Data covers 2025 wage data and 2024 to 2034 projections (BLS, via O*NET). Published 2026-07-14. Last reviewed 2026-08-16. Last updated 2026-08-16. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $73,900 / year | Median annual wage (2025) | [A] | High | The median annual wage for the occupation that contains robotics technicians. This is the figure to cite, with the occupation named. |
| $35.53 / hour | Median hourly wage (2025) | [A] | High | The same median expressed hourly. Same BLS data. |
| 15,000 employed | Employment (2024) | [A] | Medium | Employment in the occupation as of 2024. Small, which is part of why the wage is easy to misquote. |
| 1,300 per year | Projected job openings (annual average) | [A] | Medium | O*NET prints this under a 2024-2034 heading, which reads like a decade total. It is not. BLS publishes occupational openings as an annual average across the projection period, and the same figures appear in the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook described as openings projected each year, on average, over the decade. |
| 1% to 2% | Projected growth (2024-2034) | [A] | Medium | Projected employment growth, which the source labels slower than average. A counterpoint to the story of robotics as an exploding job category. |
Why the numbers disagree
The salary numbers you find online disagree because they are pulled from different occupations. Robotics technician is a detailed O*NET title (code 17-3024.01), but the wage data is only published at the level of its parent occupation, Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians (17-3024). Job boards and salary sites each pick a different proxy, so each shows a different number.
The government figure describes the whole parent category, which includes mechatronics and electro-mechanical technicians who never touch a robot. So the $73,900 median is the best-sourced number available, but it is a category median, not a robotics-only median. A robotics-only wage is not something the government measures.
The employment count is small, about 15,000 in the parent occupation, and the projected growth is slower than average at 1 to 2 percent. That sits awkwardly against the popular story of robotics as a booming job category, and it is worth knowing before you quote a growth figure.
How to cite these figures
Cite the wage as the median for Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians, $73,900 a year in 2025, and say that robotics technicians sit inside that category. Naming the occupation is what keeps the figure defensible.
Use the hourly figure, $35.53, when you need a wage rate rather than an annual salary. It is the same BLS data.
If someone quotes a much higher robotics-technician salary, ask which occupation code it comes from. Numbers well above the category median usually come from senior engineering titles, not technician roles.
Where people go wrong
Treating a job-board average as the authoritative figure. Those sites use self-reported data and different occupation mixes. The government category median is the traceable number.
Assuming robotics technician is its own measured occupation. It is a detailed title with no separate wage line; the wage is reported one level up.
Quoting fast growth for the role. The parent occupation is projected to grow slower than average, 1 to 2 percent over the decade.
How we checked
Every figure traces to the O*NET OnLine summary for Robotics Technicians (17-3024.01), which republishes Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage data and 2024 to 2034 employment projections. We fetched the O*NET page and confirmed each figure appears in its text.
We cite O*NET rather than the BLS page directly for a practical reason: the Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for this occupation returns a 403 to our citation checker, repeatably rather than occasionally, while O*NET serves the same BLS figures in a form the check can fetch and confirm. That is specific to certain Handbook pages and not a property of bls.gov as a whole. The Handbook entries for welders and for machinists fetch normally, and we cite bls.gov directly elsewhere on this site. The numbers are BLS data either way.
We did not find a government wage figure specific to robotics technicians, because none exists. Where the data stops at the parent occupation, we say so rather than inventing a robotics-only number.
O*NET's "Projected job openings (2024-2034)" heading reads like a ten-year total. It is not. BLS publishes occupational openings as an annual average across the projection period, and the same figures appear in the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook worded as openings projected each year, on average, over the decade. One occupation makes the check concrete: O*NET lists 45,600 openings for welders under that same 2024-2034 heading, and the Handbook describes that identical 45,600 as a yearly figure. We report these openings as annual averages for that reason, and flag it because O*NET's label invites the opposite reading.
Full source list
Primary sources, with live links. Every figure above traces to one of these.
- [A]O*NET OnLine (U.S. Department of Labor)Accessed July 14, 2026 (BLS 2025 wage data)
O*NET OnLine, "17-3024.01 Robotics Technicians" occupation summary, carrying Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage data and 2024-2034 employment projections
https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/17-3024.01
Common questions
- How much does a robotics technician make?
- The median wage for the occupation that contains robotics technicians is $73,900 a year, or $35.53 an hour, in 2025 government data. There is no separate robotics-only wage line, so this category median is the defensible figure.
- Why is it hard to find a robotics technician salary?
- Because the U.S. government does not publish one under that title. Robotics technicians are folded into Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians, and the wage is reported for that whole category.
- Is robotics technician a fast-growing job?
- Not according to the projections. The category is expected to grow 1 to 2 percent from 2024 to 2034, which the government labels slower than average, with about 1,300 openings a year on average across 2024 to 2034.
- Is $73,900 the robotics-only wage?
- No. It is the median for the broader category that also includes mechatronics and electro-mechanical technicians. A robotics-only median is not measured, so this is the closest defensible figure.
More data, traced to source
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- 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.'
- Robotics engineer salary: what the $122,930 figure actually measures
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