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 and employment data and 2025 to 2035 projections (BLS, via O*NET and the Occupational Outlook Handbook). Published 2026-07-14. Last reviewed 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. 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. |
| 15,700 employed | Employment (2025) | [A] | Medium | Employment in the occupation as of 2025. Small, which is part of why the wage is easy to misquote. |
| 1,400 per year | Projected job openings (annual average) | [A] | Medium | O*NET prints this under a 2025-2035 heading, which reads like a decade total. It is not; the next row shows the BLS Handbook giving the same 1,400 as a yearly figure. |
| about 1,400 a year | The same openings in the BLS Handbook | [B] | High | BLS states the figure as openings projected each year, on average, over the decade, which settles how to read O*NET's heading. |
| 3% to 4% | Projected growth (2025-2035) | [A] | Medium | Projected employment growth, which the source labels average. |
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 15,700 in the parent occupation, and growth is projected at about the average rate, 3 to 4 percent over 2025 to 2035. That is steady rather than the boom the popular story implies, 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 at about the average rate, 3 to 4 percent over 2025 to 2035.
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 and employment data and 2025 to 2035 projections, except the openings cross-check, which comes from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. We fetched both pages and confirmed each figure appears in its text.
We cite O*NET as the main source because it carries the detailed Robotics Technicians title; the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook covers only the parent occupation. Both draw on the same BLS data, and since the Handbook's September 2026 update they show identical wage, employment and openings figures for it. An earlier version of this page said the Handbook entry blocked our citation checker. That was wrong: we had tested a mistyped address, and bls.gov answers addresses that do not exist with the same 403 a block would produce.
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 (2025-2035)" heading reads like a ten-year total. It is not. BLS publishes occupational openings as an annual average across the projection period, and this occupation shows it directly: O*NET lists 1,400 openings under its 2025-2035 heading, and the BLS Handbook describes the same 1,400 as openings projected each year, on average, over the decade. We report openings as annual averages for that reason, and flag it because O*NET's label invites the opposite reading.
Refreshed in October 2026 for the 2025 to 2035 projections. The previous version, built on the 2024 to 2034 projections, reported 15,000 jobs, about 1,300 openings a year and slower-than-average growth of 1% to 2%.
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 2025-2035 employment projections
https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/17-3024.01 - [B]U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics2026
BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Electro-mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians"
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/electro-mechanical-technicians.htm
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 especially. The category is expected to grow 3 to 4 percent from 2025 to 2035, which the government labels average, with about 1,400 openings a year.
- 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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- 'One robot destroys 5.6 jobs': what the study really measured
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- How many US firms actually use robots? Far fewer than you would think
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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: 446,900 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
The $122,930 median quoted for robotics engineers is O*NET's wage for Engineers, All Other, the residual category robotics engineering sits inside. Here is what it measures, and how it compares with the technicians and mechanics who maintain the same machines.