Wage research · BLS OEWS May 2025
Mechatronics salary research, by role
Nine career tracks, every one with its own salary report: full BLS percentile distribution, all 50 states ranked by mean wage and by employment count, top-paying metros, industry breakdowns, what specific employers pay (with honest framing on what's mechatronics-specific vs broader-technician data), year-over-year trend, and the three concrete levers that move your pay number. Sources are cited inline.
Technician tier (AAS / certificate entry)
SOC 17-3024
Mechatronics Technician
$73,900
median · 15,520 US workers
The flagship AAS-entry role. Full BLS percentile breakdown, all 50 states, top metros, employer-specific pay, and three concrete levers to raise your number.
SOC 17-3024
Robotics Technician
$73,900
median · 15,520 US workers
Robot-specific cousin role. FANUC / ABB / KUKA cert ladder pay deltas, Tesla and Amazon Robotics tech compensation, plant-based vs vendor field-service split.
SOC 17-3024
Automation Technician
$73,900
median · 15,520 US workers
Process-industries variant. Pharma, food and beverage, packaging, refining. DCS platform premium (DeltaV, Experion) and PMMI cert ROI.
Engineer tier (ABET-EAC bachelor's entry)
SOC 17-2141
Mechanical Engineer
$104,110
median · 296,810 US workers
The engineer-tier flagship. PE license premium, specialization breakdown (nuclear, aerospace, biomedical), FAANG hardware total comp at Apple / Tesla / SpaceX.
SOC 17-2071
Electrical Engineer
$120,630
median · 198,750 US workers
Power utility vs power electronics vs RF vs digital. Defense clearance premium, CHIPS-Act fab demand, FAANG hardware equity tail.
SOC 17-2072
Electronics Engineer
$130,220
median · 96,900 US workers
The highest-paid common engineering SOC. Semiconductor design, RF / mmWave, defense electronics. Levels.fyi data for Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, Apple silicon.
SOC 17-2199
Controls Engineer
$122,930
median · 154,070 US workers
Rockwell / Siemens / Emerson platform pay deltas. In-house vs systems-integrator split. The natural target role for senior mechatronics technicians.
SOC 17-2199
Robotics Engineer
$122,930
median · 154,070 US workers
Industrial vs surgical vs humanoid sub-discipline pay tiers. ROS / perception / SLAM skills stack. Honest math on humanoid-startup equity (Boston Dynamics, Figure, 1X).
SOC 17-2199
Automation Engineer
$122,930
median · 154,070 US workers
Industrial automation engineer (not SDET). Pharma GxP premium, semiconductor fab automation, DCS specialization for refining and chemical.
About this data
All wage figures use the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2025 release, the authoritative US wage dataset covering roughly 1.2 million establishments. SOC code mapping: 17-3024 (Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists) for the technician tier; 17-2141 (Mechanical Engineers), 17-2071 (Electrical Engineers), 17-2072 (Electronics Engineers), and 17-2199 (Engineers, All Other, which is the bucket BLS uses for controls / robotics / automation engineers) for the engineer tier. Each role page explains its SOC mapping in plain language and reconciles BLS data with posted-wage data from Salary.com, ZipRecruiter, Levels.fyi, and Glassdoor where relevant.