Millwright Salary

Realistic starting pay sits between the 10th and 25th percentile — $22.25 to $27.11 per hour nationally. Where you land in that band depends on prior mechanical experience and any credentials you bring; most people cross the median within 3–5 years, and the jump from entry to mid-level is the largest percentage raise in the trade.

Per BLS OES, May 2025, the highest-paying states for millwrights are New Jersey ($51.70/hr median), New Mexico ($43.38/hr median) and Michigan ($42.88/hr median). High-cost-of-living and union-dense states top the list, but plant-heavy lower-cost states often win on take-home purchasing power — a median wage goes further in the Midwest and South than the coastal figure suggests.

More than most trades — plants break at night and on weekends, and shutdowns/outages concentrate paid hours. A millwright averaging 5 hours of overtime a week clears roughly $71,613 a year at the median rate; heavy-overtime sites (24/7 operations, annual outages) push total earnings past $78,840. Shift differentials of $1–$3/hr for 2nd/3rd shift stack on top of that.

Union scale is where millwright pay peaks. UBC-affiliated millwright locals negotiate package rates (wage plus pension plus annuity plus health) that commonly run 30–60% above non-union shop rates in the same region, which is why the highest state medians cluster in union-dense states. The trade-off: travel is often expected, and you're dispatched to outages and installs rather than holding one plant assignment.

Union millwright apprenticeships pay a percentage of journeyman scale that steps up every 6–12 months — typically starting around 60% and reaching full scale in 3–4 years, with benefits from day one. Because journeyman scale is high, even the 60% start often matches what non-union shops pay experienced hands, which is why the apprenticeship route usually out-earns "helper" jobs from year one.