Mechanical engineer salary: pay by industry, state and experience

A typical mechanical engineer in the US earned a median of $104,110 a year in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Use that number as your anchor, then adjust it for three things this guide walks through: the industry you work in, the state you work in, and how far along you are toward a PE license or a management role.

This is for engineering students weighing offers, working engineers checking whether they're underpaid, and anyone benchmarking a raise. Every pay figure below comes from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey for May 2025, occupation code 17-2141, unless a different date is given.

Quick reference: mechanical engineer pay, May 2025

Two quick definitions, because they matter when you compare numbers. The median is the middle salary: half of mechanical engineers earned more, half earned less. The mean is the plain average, and it sits higher here ($113,610) because a smaller group of very well-paid engineers pulls it up. When you compare an offer, compare it to the median, not the mean.

The pay range by percentile

A percentile tells you where a salary sits in the line-up. If you're at the 25th percentile, you earn more than a quarter of mechanical engineers and less than three quarters of them. Here is the full spread from the national May 2025 OEWS data file.

The right-hand column is a practical reading of the range, not a BLS breakdown. BLS does not publish mechanical engineer pay by years of experience, so treat the percentiles as a rough career ladder rather than a promise.

The range is wide. The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is bigger than the entire median salary for all US workers, which BLS put at $50,980 in May 2025. That spread is good news if you're early in your career: there is a lot of room to move up without changing professions.

Base salary vs total compensation

OEWS figures measure straight-time pay. The May 2025 technical notes say they include base pay, cost-of-living allowances, and incentive pay such as production bonuses, but exclude overtime, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses (like a year-end bonus) and the employer's cost of benefits.

So your real package can be meaningfully higher than the BLS figure. When you compare an offer to the data, compare base to base, then value the extras separately:

• Annual bonus: common at manufacturers and energy companies, often a target percentage of base. Ask what the plan actually paid out in recent years.
• Overtime: many salaried engineers are exempt from overtime. Some employers pay straight-time overtime during launches or plant outages. Ask in writing.
• Equity: more common at startups and some large public companies. Value it cautiously.
• Retirement match, health premiums, tuition help: tuition reimbursement matters if you plan a master's degree. BLS does not publish typical values of these for mechanical engineers, so you'll need each employer's benefits summary.

Pay by industry

Industry is one of the biggest levers on what you'll earn, often bigger than a year or two of experience. BLS reports these May 2025 medians for mechanical engineers in the industries that employ the most of them, in its Occupational Outlook Handbook profile:

How to read this for the four sectors most people ask about:

• Engineering services (consulting and design firms): the single biggest employer, at 20% of jobs, and close to the national median. This is where HVAC, plumbing and building-systems design work lives, and where a PE license matters most, because licensed engineers seal drawings.
• Manufacturing: machinery manufacturing pays below the national median, while computer and electronic products and transportation equipment pay a little above it. Product type matters as much as the "manufacturing" label.
• Aerospace: BLS groups aerospace product and parts manufacturing inside transportation equipment manufacturing, alongside auto and rail. That combined group's median is $105,560, so this table can't isolate aerospace on its own. For aerospace-specific pay, check the OEWS industry tables for your detailed industry code, and look at aerospace engineers in the comparison table further down.
• Research and development: the clear leader at $132,040. These roles often go to engineers with graduate degrees and deep specialist skills.
• Energy: oil and gas, pipelines and utilities employ relatively few mechanical engineers, so they don't appear in the table above. In the May 2022 OEWS release, energy industries such as oil and gas extraction and natural gas distribution topped the list of best-paying industries for this occupation. Check the current OEWS data before assuming that still holds, since energy pay tends to rise and fall with commodity prices.

Top-paying states and metro areas

Where you work moves the number a lot. These are median annual wages for mechanical engineers by state from the May 2025 OEWS state data file.

Highest-paying states (median, May 2025)

States with the most mechanical engineers (median, May 2025)

A few things jump out. New Mexico tops the pay list with a relatively small workforce, which suggests a concentration of specialised, high-paying employers rather than a broad market. Michigan, the auto-industry hub, has the most mechanical engineers but pays close to the national median. At the low end, Arkansas reported a median of $80,180.

Small states can swing from year to year because fewer engineers are surveyed. Treat a state with a few hundred jobs as a rough signal, not a precise benchmark.

Metro areas

BLS also publishes OEWS wages for each metropolitan area, and the gaps between metros inside one state can be larger than the gaps between states. Look up your metro in the OEWS area data before you negotiate, and compare like with like: a design role in a big coastal metro and a plant role in a small Midwestern city are different markets. For more on city-by-city pay, see our salaries by city coverage.

Weigh pay against cost of living

A higher salary in an expensive metro can leave you with less after housing. The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes regional price parities, an official index of how prices in each state and metro compare with the national average. Before you take a high-cost-area offer, compare the salary gap to the price gap. If local prices are higher by a bigger margin than the pay bump, you're taking a pay cut in real terms, even though the number on the offer letter went up.

How licensure (PE) and management roles affect pay

The PE license: what it is and who sets the rules

The Professional Engineer (PE) license is issued by each state's engineering licensing board, not by a national body, so the exact rules depend on where you work. The BLS Handbook describes the usual path, which most states follow in some form:

• Graduate from an accredited engineering degree program
• Pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, which is open to you once you have your bachelor's degree
• Build qualifying experience on the job, usually 4 years or more
• Pass the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam

After the FE exam you're usually called an engineer in training (EIT) or engineer intern (EI). Several states require continuing education to renew a license, and most recognise licenses from other states whose requirements meet or exceed their own. Check your own state board's rules before you plan your timeline.

Who needs it: BLS notes that every state and DC requires a license if you offer engineering services directly to the public. That makes the PE close to essential in consulting and building-design firms. Many engineers working inside manufacturing companies on their own products never need one, because state laws commonly exempt that work. Your state board can tell you whether your role is covered.

What a PE does to pay

BLS does not publish separate wages for licensed and unlicensed mechanical engineers, so there is no official "PE premium" figure, and you should be wary of anyone quoting one as fact. What the license does in practice:

• It qualifies you for roles that legally require a licensed engineer, such as sealing drawings and taking responsibility for a project.
• At many consulting firms, promotion to project engineer or project manager is tied to getting licensed.
• It gives you a concrete reason to ask for a raise. Licensure changes what the firm can bill you out for.

If you work in engineering services, ask your manager directly how licensure affects title and pay bands at your firm. Many firms have a written policy.

Moving into management

Management is where the biggest jumps sit. Architectural and engineering managers had a median annual wage of $171,270 in May 2025, with the lowest 10% under $120,810 and the top 10% above $262,760, per the BLS Handbook profile for these managers. BLS lists 5 years or more of related work experience as the typical entry requirement.

Their pay also varies by industry. In May 2025, managers in research and development had a median of $211,450, versus $169,690 in manufacturing and $168,410 in architectural and engineering services.

Not everyone wants to manage people. Many larger employers offer a technical ladder (senior, staff, principal engineer) that can reach the top quarter of mechanical engineer pay without direct reports. Ask about both paths in interviews.

Mechanical engineers compared with other engineering disciplines

All figures below are from the same May 2025 OEWS release, so they compare cleanly. Medians come from the BLS Handbook; means come from the OEWS May 2025 news release.

Mechanical engineers sit a little below the median for engineers as a whole, and close to civil and industrial engineers. The disciplines above them tend to be smaller or tied to specific high-paying industries.

That's useful if you're flexible. Mechanical engineers often move into aerospace, energy or product roles that carry other job titles. If your work is closer to what an aerospace engineer does, it's reasonable to benchmark against that title too.

How to benchmark an engineering offer

Here's a simple process you can run in about an hour.

1. Start with the national median ($104,110 in May 2025) and the percentile table above.
2. Pick your percentile honestly. New grad: roughly the 10th to 25th. Licensed, mid-career, working independently: around the median. Leading projects or a recognised specialist: 75th and up.
3. Adjust for your state. Use the state table, or look up your state and metro in the OEWS data.
4. Adjust for industry. R&D sits well above the median, machinery manufacturing below it.
5. Compare base to base. Then add bonus, overtime policy, retirement match and benefits separately.
6. Check the posted range. A growing number of states and cities require employers to list a pay range in job ads. If yours does, that range tells you what the employer has budgeted.

Worked example (hypothetical)

Say you're a mechanical engineer with three years of experience at an Ohio machinery manufacturer, and you get a base offer a few thousand dollars below the state median. Ohio's May 2025 median for the occupation was $99,100, and machinery manufacturing's national median was $98,620. With three years in and no PE, you'd expect to sit somewhat below the median, so an offer in that zone is plausible, but not generous. A reasonable ask is to land at or near the state median, especially if you bring skills the team said it needs.

Scripts you can use

At offer stage:

"Thanks, I'm excited about the role. Based on BLS data for mechanical engineers in Ohio and what I'd bring on the design side, I was expecting something closer to the state median for this role. Is there flexibility on base?"

If base is fixed:

"I understand the base is set. Could we look at a signing bonus, or a written review at six months tied to passing the PE exam?"

At review time, after earning your PE:

"Now that I'm licensed, I can seal drawings and lead projects on my own. I'd like to talk about moving into the project engineer band and what that means for my pay."

None of these guarantees a yes. They do show you've done the homework, which makes a "let me check" more likely than a flat no. For more phrasing ideas, see our negotiation guides.

What the trend data shows

BLS projects employment of mechanical engineers to grow 11% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the 3% average for all occupations, with about 17,800 openings a year on average. Steady demand gives you leverage, particularly if you have automation, controls or simulation skills that employers are hiring for. Track raises and pay-law changes in our pay trends section.

What to do next

• Write down your number: the percentile that fits your experience, adjusted for state and industry.
• Look up your metro in the OEWS area data, since metro pay can differ sharply from the state figure.
• If you're in consulting or building design, map out your FE and PE timeline with your state board's rules.
• Before any pay conversation, collect the full package: base, bonus history, overtime policy and benefits.
• Practice one script out loud before the call. It sounds simple, and it works better than winging it.

For more role-by-role pay guides, browse salaries by role.