Civil Engineer salary
What a civil engineer actually earns, from 811 live job postings blended with the official US OEWS (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) wage anchor. Pick a market for its median and range, then read the seniority split, the trend, and the country comparison below. Updated 2026-09-06.
Switch the market above to see civil engineer pay in the 4 countries our sources cover, each with its own cost of living. The trend, seniority, and state detail below are United States data, where the official record runs deepest.
What the number means
Civil engineering trades the highest ceilings for the steadiest ground. The blended US median is about 93,000 dollars with an OEWS median of 99,590, and unemployment sits at 1.5 percent, because civil work is public-money work: the backlog of roads, water, and site infrastructure does not follow the private construction cycle that whipsaws other building careers. Pay rose 14 percent since 2019, supported by sustained infrastructure spending. The number that moves a civil engineer’s pay is the PE license, which is not optional for responsible charge, the point at which an engineer can sign and seal work and take on the roles that pay the top of the band. For anyone weighing engineering disciplines for stability, civil is the answer: less upside than software or petroleum, far less volatility, and a demand floor set by the fact that the country’s infrastructure keeps aging whether the economy grows or not.
Open civil engineer roles
Live openings tagged to this occupation, from company career pages and remote boards. Apply at the source.
Projektingenieur:in Konstruktiver Ingenieurbau im Infrastrukturbereich at IUB Engineering AGOlten, Solothurn, Switzerland1d agoApply
Sr. Geotechnical Engineer at BechtelOgden, UT1d agoApply- Supervisory Civil Engineer at United States Army Installation Management CommandWheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii$96k–$124k2d agoApply
- Bauingenieur:in 80-100% at GEOINFO AGWil SG, St. Gallen, Switzerland · Remote2d agoApply
Bauingenieurin / Bauingenieur Projektleitung Tragkonstruktionen I 60 - 100% I Zürich at Kissling+Zbinden AGZürich, Zürich, Switzerland · Remote2d agoApply
INGENIERO DE PRESUPUESTO - OBRA CIVIL at YerilCurridabat, San José2d agoApply
By seniority
Posted-median pay by seniority signal in the title, from our corpus. Noisy at the edges where sample sizes are small.
By country
- United States$77,196$95,550$117,847
- United Kingdom$54,575$64,808$81,616
- Canada$66,594$87,051$101,077
- Australia$71,675$83,323$103,033
Switzerland · official wage bands
median CHF 8'730/month
Swiss postings do not state pay, so these are not posted salaries: they are the federal wage survey (Lohnstrukturerhebung 2024) for the ISCO group 21 Naturwissenschaftler, Mathematiker und Ingenieure: standardized gross monthly, full-time, 13th salary included pro rata. The band covers the whole occupation group, which is coarser than this occupation alone.
Annual ≈ CHF 104'760 at the median. Source: Bundesamt für Statistik, LSE 2024.
Top-paying US states
OEWS median by state, highest first.
- California$118,450
- Rhode Island$112,250
- Alaska$107,240
- Washington$105,090
- Massachusetts$104,450
- Mississippi$103,940
Roles that pay more, that these skills already reach
Median pay from each destination’s own postings, with the readiness a civil engineer profile already covers.
- 600 open electrical engineer roles$119,104 median · +$23,554 · 17% readiness
- 15 open building envelope consultant roles$117,052 median · +$21,502 · 29% readiness
- 272 open mechanical engineer roles$112,630 median · +$17,080 · 20% readiness
- 75 open environmental engineer roles$108,611 median · +$13,061 · 21% readiness
Every measured move out of this role, ranked by readiness: alternative careers for a civil engineer.
Is your offer fair?
Run a specific number through FairElephant, which weighs it against this data, your location, and remote market rates.
Move into or out of civil engineer
- architect → civil engineermeasured route
Related salaries
- Mechanical Engineer salary$112,630 median
- Architect salary$99,684 median
- Project Manager salary$126,568 median
Quick answers
How much do civil engineers make?
The blended US median is about 93,000 dollars, with the official BLS OEWS median at 99,590 and a typical range of 76,000 to 116,000.
Is civil engineering a stable job?
One of the steadiest: unemployment is 1.5 percent, because civil work is public-money infrastructure that does not follow the private construction cycle.
Do civil engineers need a PE license?
For responsible charge, yes. The PE license gates the ability to sign and seal work and the senior roles that pay the top of the band.
Method: bands are the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of live US postings with stated pay, shrunk toward the official OEWS anchor by sample size (the “blended” figure). Trend is the OEWS annual median for SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code 17-2051. Unemployment is the 2025 BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) CPS (Current Population Survey) annual-average rate for “Civil engineers.” Live corpus 811 observations, 2026-09-06. Definitions in the glossary.