How much do field technicians make in 2026?
Telecommunications field technicians are counted in the BLS telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers series: OEWS May 2025 gives SOC 49-2022 a national median of $63,890 a year ($30.72 an hour), with the bottom 10% near $44,240 and the top 10% at $96,730. The series pools field work with central office, installation and headend roles, so treat it as an inside-plant family band. Field technician is the customer-facing end of it: dispatched to premises to install, activate and repair services, working from a vehicle, with a schedule measured in appointment windows. What separates the halves of this band is the customer. Residential field work — internet, voice and video installs, equipment swaps, drop repairs — is high volume, time-pressured and increasingly displaced by self-installation. Business and enterprise field work is different: dedicated circuits, fiber-fed services, managed routers and switches, SLA-backed restoration where downtime has contractual consequences, and customers with their own technical staff. Technicians who make that transition, usually by adding fiber, networking and test equipment skills, move up this band and out of the part of the trade that automation is compressing. Employment is projected to decline 4.2% through 2034, with roughly 13,200 openings a year. → Full field technician career guide, career path, credentials & placement →
Note: $63,890 blends every experience level and every setting in this occupation. For pay by level alone, see Pay by Level below.
- Field Technicians earn a national median $63,890/yr ($30.72/hr) (BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 49-2022); the P10 to P90 range is $44,240 to $96,730.
- Residential field work is high volume, time-pressured and increasingly displaced by self-installation kits and remote diagnostics.
- Business and enterprise field work — dedicated circuits, fiber services, managed equipment and SLA-backed restoration — pays materially better and is not being automated the same way.
- The transition between the two is made by adding fiber, networking and test equipment skills rather than by accumulating years on residential routes.
US Field Technician Pay Distribution · BLS OEWS May 2025
Pay by Level · BLS OEWS May 2025
How much do field technicians earn at each level?
BLS OEWS publishes one blended wage for the whole occupation and does not break pay out by credential or practice level. The levels below distribute the published percentile range across the credential tiers this role actually hires at.
Level medians are aligned to the BLS OEWS May 2025 percentile distribution for SOC 49-2022; GlobalCybers does not yet publish a verified placement sample for this role, so no verified median is shown.
Methodology & Sources
How the numbers on this page are built
Published (BLS): BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 49-2022, United States national estimate. Public, methodologically rigorous, but sampled on a rolling 3-year basis and published ~10 months after collection — so it reflects wages that are already 1–2 years old by the time you read them.
Level and certification medians: distributed across the published BLS percentile range for this SOC code (P10 through P90) according to the credential tiers this occupation actually hires at. They are modeled reference points, not separately surveyed wages.
State and metro figures: modeled — the BLS national median multiplied by the GlobalCybers state wage index, and for metros by the published metro index for that state. They are estimates of local pay, not BLS state or metropolitan-area observations, and are labelled as modeled in the tables below.
No verified placement sample:GlobalCybers does not yet publish a placement median for this role, so no "verified" figure appears anywhere on this page.
Pay by Career Level
How much does a field technician earn at each career stage?
Field technician pay follows the complexity of the service and the consequence of the outage. Each median is anchored to the BLS OEWS distribution for SOC 49-2022.
By State
Which states pay field technicians the most in 2026?
These are modeled state estimates — the BLS national telecom equipment installer median scaled by the GlobalCybers state wage index — not BLS state observations. Field technician pay is set mostly by the carrier's pay structure and by whether technicians are directly employed or contracted, which no wage index reflects.
6 of 51 state guides shown, ranked by median. Bar is relative to California ($73,470), the highest-paying state shown. See all role salary guides →
By Metro
Which cities pay field technicians the most?
Modeled metro estimates: the national median scaled by the state wage index and then by that state's published metro index. They estimate local wage levels and are not BLS metropolitan-area observations. Metros with dense business districts carry more of the higher-paying commercial work.
BLS OEWS MSA estimates, May 2025. Nominal pay — weigh each metro against its cost of living before relocating.
Certification Impact
Which certifications raise a field technician’s pay the most?
Median annual pay before and after each credential, based on GlobalCybers placement data cross-referenced with BLS. License upgrades move the needle most; stackable certs add on top.
Impacts are not additive, the licensing rows share the same career ladder. Browse all 167 certifications →
Trade Comparison
How does field technician pay compare to related roles?
BLS OEWS national median across the closest trades. Field Technicians sit mid-pack on median but carry one of the widest P10–P90 spreads, licensing and specialization drive the upside.
BLS OEWS May 2025. Verify field technician wages on BLS.gov →
Take-Home Pay
What does a field technician actually take home after taxes?
The medians above are gross base wage.
Estimates use 2026 federal brackets, standard deduction, and 7.65% FICA. Actual take-home varies with filing status, deductions, and local tax.
FAQ
Field Technician Salary, Frequently Asked Questions
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