Blue collar workers are known for doing the dirty jobs many of us take for granted. They roll up their sleeves, get dirt under their fingernails and wipe sweat off their brow with the back of their hand. These hard-working individuals are often underappreciated and, even worse, underpaid. Fortunately, there are labor-intensive jobs out there that reward their employees with higher wages. Using the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Foreign Labor Certification Data Center, CareerTrends has found the 25 highest-paying blue collar jobs in America. Data is collected via surveys sent out to employers. Employment data is from May 2014, while salary data is from June 2015.
What exactly is a blue collar job? We searched for all jobs listed in the following fields: construction and extraction, farming, fishing, forestry, installation, maintenance, repair, production, transportation and material moving. For this list, we only included occupations with at least 10,000 full-time employees.
#25. Biofuels Processing Technicians
Total employees: 12,000 Average salary: $50,304
#24. Railroad Conductors
Total employees: 42,900 Average salary: $50,363
#23. Robotics Technicians
Total employees: 14,430 Average salary: $51,041
#22. Locomotive Engineers
Total employees: 38,470 Average salary: $52,041
#21. Electrical & Electronics Drafters
Total employees: 29,390 Average salary: $52,194
#20. Production Supervisors
Total employees: 592,830 Average salary: $52,271
#19. Surveyors
Total employees: 41,970 Average salary: $52,322
#18. Avionics Technicians
Total employees: 17,150 Average salary: $52,671
#17. Electrical Engineering Technologists
Total employees: 68,000 Average salary: $54,067
#16. Subway Operators
Total employees: 11,300 Average salary: $54,471
#15. Petroleum Pump Operators
Total employees: 41,700 Average salary: $54,492
#14. Boilermakers
Total employees: 17,210 Average salary: $54,942
#13. Solar Energy Installation Managers
Total employees: 496,370 Average salary: $55,598
#12. Cartographers
Total employees: 11,610 Average salary: $55,932
#11. Mechanics Supervisors
Total employees: 434,810 Average salary: $56,133
#10. Aerospace Engineering Technicians
Total employees: 11,230 Average salary: $58,961
#9. Gas Plant Operators
Total employees: 16,320 Average salary: $59,388
#8. Landscape Architects
Total employees: 18,110 Average salary: $60,696
#7. Transportation Inspectors
Total employees: 24,350 Average salary: $62,018
#6. Power-Line Installers
Total employees: 114,540 Average salary: $62,094
#5. Power Plant Operators
Total employees: 40,300 Average salary: $62,908
#4. Water Vessel Captains
Total employees: 30,690 Average salary: $63,032
#3. Powerhouse Equipment Installers
Total employees: 22,120 Average salary: $67,128
#2. Elevator Installers
Total employees: 20,590 Average salary: $68,792
#1. Power Distributors
Total employees: 11,180 Average salary: $73,446
