Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators
Operate equipment used for applying concrete, asphalt, or other materials to road beds, parking lots, or airport runways and taxiways or for tamping gravel, dirt, or other materials. Includes concrete and asphalt paving machine operators, form tampers, tamping machine operators, and stone spreader operators.
A wage reference for United States.
Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.
This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.
May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.
Annual wage thresholds
USD per year
Hourly wage thresholds
USD per hour
| Percentile | Annual wage (USD/year) | Hourly wage (USD/hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $38,230 | $18.38 |
| 25th | $45,610 | $21.93 |
| 50th · Median | $53,340 | $25.64 |
| 75th | $64,720 | $31.12 |
| 90th | $92,230 | $44.34 |
“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.
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What this career involves.
Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.
Selected title examples
Expand more title examples (46)
Typical tasks
- Start machine, engage clutch, and push and move levers to guide machine along forms or guidelines and to control the operation of machine attachments.
- Fill tanks, hoppers, or machines with paving materials.
- Control paving machines to push dump trucks and to maintain a constant flow of asphalt or other material into hoppers or screeds.
- Observe distribution of paving material to adjust machine settings or material flow, and indicate low spots for workers to add material.
- Coordinate truck dumping.
- Drive machines onto truck trailers, and drive trucks to transport machines and material to and from job sites.
Expand more tasks (14)
- Inspect, clean, maintain, and repair equipment, using mechanics' hand tools, or report malfunctions to supervisors.
- Set up and tear down equipment.
- Operate machines to spread, smooth, level, or steel-reinforce stone, concrete, or asphalt on road beds.
- Light burners or start heating units of machines, and regulate screed temperatures and asphalt flow rates.
- Control traffic.
- Shovel blacktop.
- Operate tamping machines or manually roll surfaces to compact earth fills, foundation forms, and finished road materials, according to grade specifications.
- Operate oil distributors, loaders, chip spreaders, dump trucks, and snow plows.
- Place strips of material, such as cork, asphalt, or steel into joints, or place rolls of expansion-joint material on machines that automatically insert material.
- Drive and operate curbing machines to extrude concrete or asphalt curbing.
- Operate machines that clean or cut expansion joints in concrete or asphalt and that rout out cracks in pavement.
- Cut or break up pavement and drive guardrail posts, using machines equipped with interchangeable hammers.
- Install dies, cutters, and extensions to screeds onto machines, using hand tools.
- Set up forms and lay out guidelines for curbs, according to written specifications, using string, spray paint, and concrete or water mixes.
Skills used in this work
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
Expand more skills (29)
- Troubleshooting
- Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Equipment Maintenance
- Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Equipment Selection
- Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
- Technology Design
- Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Operations Analysis
- Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Programming
- Writing computer programs for various purposes.
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