TradeFooting
Paid apprenticeship

Construction Industry Training Council of Washington - Construction Equipment Operator

Constr Equip Operator

Bellevue, Washington · Non-union · SOC 47-2073

Tuition
$0

Registered apprenticeships are paid employment.

Year-one pay
$28.44/hr

First step on the registered wage scale.

Journey rate
$43.75/hr

Paid once you turn out, not during the term.

Term
6,000 hours

Plus 480 hours of classroom instruction.

Four years from now

Our estimate, calculated by TradeFooting from this program's published first-step wage, journey rate and registered term. The registry publishes those three facts. The projection below is ours, and the workings are shown.

YearRateGross pay
Year 1$29.90/hr$59,796
Year 2$32.81/hr$65,628
Year 3$35.73/hr$71,459
Year 4$37.19/hr$74,375
Total earned$271,258
Tuition paid$0
Debt$0
How this is worked out
  • Assumes 2,000 paid hours a year. No overtime.
  • Pay rises evenly from the registered first step to the registered journey rate. Real schedules usually rise faster later, so the early years here are, if anything, generous and the four-year total is not overstated.
  • Gross pay before tax. Tools, dues and exam fees are not deducted.
  • The first-step and journey rates are published by the registry. The steps between them are not, so they are spread evenly across the term.

What heavy equipment operators earn in Washington

$81,700median, per year

Half earn more, half less, across all experience levels. National median $59,850.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS · SOC 47-2073 · survey 2025-05 · retrieved 2026-08-26

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