How much do truck drivers make?
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in the U.S. earned a median $58,640 per year ($28.19 per hour) as of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2025 survey. The lowest-paid ten percent earned under $40,140, the highest-paid ten percent over $79,380. It's a national baseline, not a first-year promise.
The only pay numbers on this page come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — the federal survey of what employers actually pay, not job-ad headlines. Two BLS programs matter here: the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (wages, updated to May 2025) and the Occupational Outlook Handbook (job-market projections, 2024–34).
What does BLS say drivers earn?
| Measure | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Median annual wage | $58,640 ($28.19/hour) |
| 10th percentile (lowest-paid tenth earned less than) | $40,140 |
| 90th percentile (highest-paid tenth earned more than) | $79,380 |
| Wage-and-salary driver jobs (national estimate) | 2,062,040 |
National estimates of wage-and-salary jobs, all experience levels and freight segments blended; the OEWS survey samples employers, so self-employed drivers are not included. State and metro breakdowns are on the linked BLS profile.
$58,640
Why is this a baseline, not your first-year number?
Four reasons to read the median carefully. It lags: May 2025 data is published the following year, so current freight-market swings aren't in it yet. It blends every experience level: a 20-year company veteran and a first-year driver sit in the same distribution, and new drivers typically start in the lower percentiles — which is what makes the $40,140 10th-percentile figure a more honest floor to plan around than the median. It averages segments: long-haul, regional, local, LTL, and specialized freight pay differently, and the spread between them is wide. And it counts employees only: OEWS surveys employers, so self-employed owner-operators' earnings are outside this dataset entirely.
Any recruiter promise well above the 90th-percentile figure ($79,380) for a first-year seat deserves the same skepticism you'd give any offer that beats the documented market by that much.
Is trucking work actually growing?
Per the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, employment of heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers is projected to grow 4% from 2024 to 2034 — about as fast as the average for all occupations — on a base of 2,235,100 jobs in 2024. The bigger hiring signal is churn: BLS projects about 237,600 openings every year on average over the decade, most of them replacing drivers who change occupations or retire. Openings for new entrants exist in nearly every market, every year; the projection says nothing about the quality of any particular seat.
What should I do with these numbers?
Use them as your negotiating floor and your reality check. Weigh a training contract or first-job offer against the percentile table above, not against a billboard. And run the other side of the ledger first — the cost calculator shows what the license itself costs, and the step-by-step guide covers getting from zero to that first paycheck. The knowledge tests are free to start practicing right now.
Sources
Every claim on this page traces to one of these primary sources — no blogs, no aggregators.
- BLS OEWS — Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers (53-3032)
May 2025 national wage estimates: median, percentiles, and employment.
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
2024–34 projections: 4% growth and about 237,600 openings per year.
- BLS OEWS overview — survey scope
OEWS covers wage-and-salary workers surveyed through employers and does not include the self-employed — why owner-operators sit outside these figures.