Published by Salary by Metro · Updated October 21, 2026

Truck driver pay by metro

Heavy truck, light truck, and a sales route are three wages. In Los Angeles and Dallas the heavy-truck paychecks are close, and the prices are not.

Truck driver is not one row in the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics estimates, released May 15, 2026. The occupation people usually mean by an over-the-road driving job is heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, SOC 53-3032. Light truck drivers are SOC 53-3033. Driver/sales workers are SOC 53-3031. The three medians are different, the employment counts are different, and a metro page for one of them is the wrong citation for the other two. The wages are straight-time gross pay for wage-and-salary workers. The survey does not publish a rate per mile.

Three occupations that get called the same thing

The May 2025 occupation definitions follow the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification. They are listed from the OEWS documentation page at https://www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm and written out in the occupation file at https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/oe/oe.occupation. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers drive a tractor-trailer combination or a truck with a capacity of at least 26,001 pounds gross vehicle weight. They may have to unload the truck. The definition says the work requires a commercial driver's license, and it includes tow truck drivers. It excludes refuse and recyclable material collectors, SOC 53-7081.

Light truck drivers drive a light truck or van with a capacity under 26,001 pounds gross vehicle weight, primarily to pick up merchandise or packages from a distribution center and deliver them. They may load and unload the vehicle. The definition excludes couriers and messengers, SOC 43-5021, and driver/sales workers. Driver/sales workers drive a truck or other vehicle over an established route or inside an established territory and sell or deliver goods, such as food products, including restaurant take-out, or pick up or deliver items such as commercial laundry. They may take orders, collect payment, or stock merchandise at the point of delivery. The definition excludes light truck drivers. A package route from a distribution center and a route that sells the goods are not the same occupation, even when both workers are behind the wheel of a truck.

The three national medians

Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers: employment 2,062,040. The annual 10th percentile is $40,140, the 25th is $47,960, the median is $58,640, the 75th is $69,120, and the 90th is $79,380. The mean is $59,710. The hourly median is $28.19. The mean is $1,070 above the median, a small gap. The middle half of the wages runs from $47,960 to $69,120. The all-occupations national median in this release is $50,980, so the heavy-truck median is above the middle of the whole labor market, and the top of the published range is not a long tail. The 90th percentile is $20,740 above the median.

Light truck drivers: employment 983,300. The 10th percentile is $30,800, the 25th is $37,270, the median is $44,860, the 75th is $52,310, and the 90th is $80,310. The mean is $48,770. The hourly median is $21.57. The median is $13,780 below the heavy-truck median. The 90th percentile is not below the heavy-truck 90th. It is $80,310, against $79,380 for heavy trucks. The upper end of the light-truck distribution reaches about the same annual wage as the upper end of the heavy-truck distribution. The center of the light-truck distribution does not. The mean sits $3,910 above the light-truck median, which is what a long upper tail does to an average. Driver/sales workers: employment 409,180. The 10th percentile is $22,590, the median is $38,770, the 90th is $59,980, the mean is $40,730, and the hourly median is $18.64. That median is $19,870 below the heavy-truck median. A single phrase, truck driver, is covering a spread of $19,870 between these two medians before any city is chosen.

The technical notes at https://www.bls.gov/oes/2025/may/oes_tec.htm limit who is counted. Employment is wage-and-salary workers. The survey does not include the self-employed, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers, or unpaid family workers. It does include salaried officers, executives, and staff members of incorporated firms. A driver who is an employee of a carrier is in the estimate. A driver who is self-employed, including an owner-operator who is self-employed rather than a wage-and-salary employee, is not. The median is not a reading of what an unincorporated owner-operator clears after fuel, the truck payment, and insurance. Those costs are not in the wage concept. The tables are at https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

Los Angeles and Dallas, almost the same paycheck

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX are both large heavy-truck employment centers, and their medians are close. Los Angeles employment is 61,270. The 10th percentile is $42,910, the 25th is $49,020, the median is $60,340, the 75th is $70,600, and the 90th is $80,120. The mean is $61,230. The hourly median is $29.01. Dallas employment is 55,670. The 10th percentile is $42,810, the 25th is $49,090, the median is $59,530, the 75th is $73,020, and the 90th is $91,990. The mean is $62,720. The hourly median is $28.62. The Los Angeles median is $810 higher. The hourly medians are $0.39 apart. Someone comparing the two paychecks, and stopping there, would call them the same job at the same pay.

The 2024 all-items regional price parities, released February 19, 2026, do not call them the same. The BEA page for the series is https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area. The United States is 100. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim is 113.566. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 103.090. Divide the Los Angeles median of $60,340 by 113.566 and multiply by 100. That is $53,132 in national prices, rounded to the nearest dollar. Divide the Dallas median of $59,530 by 103.090 and multiply by 100. That is $57,746. The nominal ranking and the national-price ranking go in opposite directions. Dallas is $4,614 ahead once both wages are in national prices, $57,746 minus $53,132.

Held the other way, a Los Angeles median of $60,340 has about the purchasing power of $54,774 in Dallas. That is $60,340 times 103.090 divided by 113.566, rounded to the nearest dollar. The Dallas median is $59,530, which is $4,756 more than $54,774. A Dallas median of $59,530 has about the purchasing power of $65,579 in Los Angeles, $59,530 times 113.566 divided by 103.090. The published Los Angeles median is $60,340, not $65,579. Matching Dallas purchasing power in Los Angeles would mean a wage above the Los Angeles median. Matching either local median means taking that metro's cost of labor and a different basket of prices. The wages are May 2025. The parities are 2024. The comparison page will run this pair for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers.

The California median for the same occupation is $60,230, with employment of 205,090. That is $110 under the Los Angeles median, and it is not a substitute for a Texas job. The Texas median is $56,290, with employment of 209,680, which is $3,240 under the Dallas median. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA, the Inland Empire area next to Los Angeles, publishes a heavy-truck median of $60,580 and employment of 40,230. The nominal wage is $240 above Los Angeles. The 2024 parity is 106.442, lower than Los Angeles at 113.566. Divide $60,580 by 106.442 and multiply by 100: $56,914 in national prices, against $53,132 for the Los Angeles median. A Los Angeles wage of $60,340 has about the purchasing power of $56,555 in Riverside, $60,340 times 106.442 divided by 113.566. The Riverside median itself is $60,580. The two Southern California paychecks look alike. The price parities do not.

The same cities, the other two occupations

Light truck drivers in Los Angeles have a median of $46,500 and employment of 40,900. In Dallas the median is $44,050 and employment is 25,890. Driver/sales workers in Los Angeles have a median of $45,220 and employment of 11,130. In Dallas the median is $44,440 and employment is 9,970. In both metros the light-truck median and the driver/sales median sit in the mid-$40,000s, and the heavy-truck median sits near $60,000. Using the heavy-truck page for a delivery route, or the light-truck page for a tractor-trailer job, moves the citation by roughly $15,000 in these two areas. The national gap between the heavy and light medians is $13,780. The local gaps are the same kind of fact.

A low wage with high prices, and a higher large-metro wage

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL publishes a heavy-truck median of $51,580, an hourly median of $24.80, and employment of 29,060. The 10th percentile is $38,270 and the 90th is $75,140. The 2024 parity is 114.155. Divide $51,580 by 114.155 and multiply by 100: $45,184 in national prices. The Florida median is $50,640, with employment of 112,920. The Miami paycheck is already under the national heavy-truck median of $58,640, and the price parity puts the national-price wage lower still. That is the opposite of the Dallas case, where a similar nominal wage buys more because the parity is near the national level.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA publishes a heavy-truck median of $71,240, an hourly median of $34.25, and employment of 21,230. The 10th percentile is $55,980 and the 90th is $93,810. The Washington median is $64,760. The Seattle median is a high wage among large metropolitan areas in this release. It is not a claim about every smaller area. The page for the metro is the citation for a job there. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has the largest heavy-truck employment in the file, 65,100, and a median of $65,040. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN has employment of 62,210 and a median of $62,300. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX has employment of 49,750 and a median of $56,840. Size and the median do not move together. New York employs more heavy-truck drivers than Seattle and publishes a lower median.

What the wage cell is not

OEWS wages are straight-time, gross pay, exclusive of premium pay. The technical notes include base rates, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay, incentive pay including commissions and production bonuses, and tips. They exclude overtime pay, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, and the employer's cost of benefits. The survey does not publish cents per mile, a fuel surcharge, or a share of the shipping revenue. Where BLS published an hourly wage and an annual wage, the page shows both. It does not invent a yearly figure by multiplying the hourly median by 2,080, and it does not invent an hourly figure by dividing the annual median. A blank percentile stays blank.

• Use SOC 53-3032 for a tractor-trailer or a truck at or above 26,001 pounds gross vehicle weight. Use 53-3033 for a lighter delivery truck. Use 53-3031 for a route that sells or delivers on an established territory.
• The Los Angeles heavy-truck median is $60,340 and the Dallas median is $59,530. In national prices those are about $53,132 and $57,746.
• A self-employed owner-operator is outside the survey. The median describes wage-and-salary workers.
• Overtime and a nonproduction bonus are outside the wage. The percentile is a place in the straight-time distribution.

Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers · Light truck drivers · Driver/sales workers · Heavy truck drivers in Los Angeles · Heavy truck drivers in Dallas · Heavy truck drivers in Riverside · Heavy truck drivers in Miami · Heavy truck drivers in Seattle · Heavy truck drivers in Chicago · Light truck drivers in Los Angeles · Light truck drivers in Dallas · Compare heavy-truck pay, Los Angeles and Dallas · Comparing pay across metros · Electrician pay by metro · When a wage is not published