beta
Write my resume

Pay · 17-1022

Surveyors earn $75,440 a year at the midpoint

From about $46,880 at the low end to $125,590 at the top, with $75,440 in the middle — the 2025 survey, published as reported.

Write my resume for this job →

$75,440median a year · United States
$36.27an hour $80,570average 50,830people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$58,17025th $75,440median $98,13075th
$46,88010th percentile $125,59090th percentile
$58,170a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$105,330best-paying state · California
$51,800lowest-paying state · Arkansas
+40%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $105,330 in California and $51,800 in Arkansas — a gap of $53,530 a year.

Surveyor earnings, from starting pay up to the top 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

Experience
Name this figure
When they ask “What are your salary expectations?”

An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Number 253 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 68% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 251 Family and Consumer Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary $75,870
  2. 252 Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators $75,530
  3. 253 Surveyors $75,440
  4. 254 Film and Video Editors $75,420
  5. 255 Education Teachers, Postsecondary $75,350

Examples

Resumes written for this line of work.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

All templates →

  • Land Surveyor Resume Template Architecture & Engineering
  • Cartographer Resume Template Architecture & Engineering
  • Landscape Architect Resume Template Architecture & Engineering
  • Architect Resume Template Architecture & Engineering
  • Aerospace Engineer Resume Template Architecture & Engineering
  • Agricultural Engineer Resume Template Architecture & Engineering
  • Biomedical Engineer Resume Template Architecture & Engineering
  • Chemical Engineer Resume Template Architecture & Engineering
  • Civil Engineer Resume Template Architecture & Engineering
  • Hardware Engineer Resume Template Architecture & Engineering
  • Electrical Engineer Resume Template Architecture & Engineering
  • Electronics Engineer Resume Template Architecture & Engineering

Resumes for surveyors

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

Bentley MicroStationAutodesk AutoCAD Civil 3DAutodesk AutoCADESRI ArcViewGeographic information system GIS systemsESRI ArcGIS softwareGeomechanical design analysis GDA softwareMicrosoft Office software
  • Directed or conducted surveys to establish legal boundaries for properties, based on legal deeds and titles.
  • Prepared and maintained sketches, maps, reports, and legal descriptions of surveys to describe, certify, and assume liability for work performed.
  • Wrote descriptions of property boundary surveys for use in deeds, leases, or other legal documents.

Write my resume →

This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Surveyor pay rate, from hourly to yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$75,442a year

Surveyor wages, state by state

The 36 states where the most people do this work, of 50 with a published figure: their medians range by 2.03 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
California $105,330 $59,310 $59,310 — $160,430 4,520
Oregon $97,070 $64,880 $64,880 — $131,040 530
Massachusetts $94,590 $57,880 $57,880 — $129,410 1,290
Washington $85,610 $63,860 $63,860 — $134,620 780
Minnesota $83,620 $49,510 $49,510 — $125,040 980
Nevada $82,460 $64,160 $64,160 — $127,660 490
Indiana $80,510 $48,260 $48,260 — $118,760 870
Wisconsin $79,650 $57,510 $57,510 — $118,850 610
Colorado $79,310 $51,220 $51,220 — $115,990 1,620
New York $78,870 $53,390 $53,390 — $126,340 1,470
Arizona $77,490 $48,940 $48,940 — $110,950 1,360
New Jersey $77,160 $58,240 $58,240 — $132,930 900
Iowa $77,090 $47,830 $47,830 — $129,670 450
Connecticut $76,730 $58,140 $58,140 — $109,050 430
Tennessee $76,340 $48,950 $48,950 — $114,400 920
North Carolina $76,210 $46,750 $46,750 — $128,200 1,530
Illinois $75,980 $46,540 $46,540 — $126,300 1,710
Pennsylvania $75,950 $52,160 $52,160 — $115,450 1,610
Utah $73,230 $45,180 $45,180 — $106,230 650
Michigan $72,080 $51,240 $51,240 — $99,940 1,050
Kentucky $71,840 $39,000 $39,000 — $101,330 670
Virginia $71,070 $50,770 $50,770 — $109,600 1,360
Ohio $70,620 $48,600 $48,600 — $114,440 1,300
Nebraska $68,050 $51,660 $51,660 — $103,650 430
Alabama $66,840 $38,520 $38,520 — $112,580 910
Florida $65,480 $46,160 $46,160 — $121,360 4,000
Maryland $64,910 $44,110 $44,110 — $166,400 950
South Carolina $63,300 $44,710 $44,710 — $100,360 1,000
Louisiana $63,140 $38,810 $38,810 — $111,790 1,460
Missouri $62,110 $42,700 $42,700 — $101,730 830
West Virginia $61,520 $37,920 $37,920 — $100,280 630
Oklahoma $61,300 $37,510 $37,510 — $103,270 960
Texas $61,150 $42,450 $42,450 — $107,850 6,410
Mississippi $58,720 $38,840 $38,840 — $96,460 570
Georgia $58,100 $44,680 $44,680 — $105,270 1,770
Arkansas $51,800 $36,380 $36,380 — $91,610 550

What people often ask

What is a surveyor’s yearly income?

A surveyor makes a median of $75,440 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $58,170 and $98,130.

What is a surveyor’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $36.27 an hour; the average is $80,570 a year.

What is the starting pay for a surveyor?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $58,170 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $46,880.

Which state pays surveyors the most?

California, with a median of $105,330 a year.

How many people work as surveyors?

About 50,830 in the United States — number 253 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays roughly the same

Median pay within $200 of what surveyors earn — $75,440 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations