Tower Climber Salary 2026,
What Tower Climbers Actually Earn

How much do tower climbers make in 2026?

Tower climbers are counted in the BLS radio, cellular and tower equipment installers and repairers series: OEWS May 2025 puts SOC 49-2021 at a national median of $63,520 a year ($30.54 an hour), with the bottom 10% near $44,460 and the top 10% at $103,990. It is a small occupation — 11,140 workers — and the published median understates typical earnings for travelling crews, because per-diem, overtime and project rates form a large share of the pay and an annual figure blends busy and idle periods. Position in the band follows capability and authorisation: a ground hand or entry climber sits near the bottom, a climber who can run lines, install and align antennas and radios and commission a site sits at the median, and a competent climber with rigging qualification, rescue competency and the ability to lead a crew sits at the top. This job requires an honest safety statement. Tower work has historically carried one of the highest fatality rates of any occupation in the country relative to its size, from falls, structural collapse during modification, and rigging failures. The industry has pushed hard on training, authorised climber and rescue certification and rigging standards, and conditions have improved — but the hazard is intrinsic, and anyone considering the trade should weigh that as seriously as the pay. Employment is projected to grow 8.6% through 2034 with roughly 1,200 openings a year. → Full tower climber career guide, career path, credentials & placement →

Note: $63,520 blends every experience level and every setting in this occupation. For pay by level alone, see Pay by Level below.

Published (BLS): BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 49-2021, 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.

Full site methodology & data sources →