Logging Equipment Operators Career, Salary and Skills
Logging Equipment Operators have a BLS-reported national median annual wage of $49,740 based on the 2025 OEWS dataset, with reported national employment of 21,060. Wage data is published for 85 locations.
Occupation description
Drive logging tractor or wheeled vehicle equipped with one or more accessories, such as bulldozer blade, frontal shear, grapple, logging arch, cable winches, hoisting rack, or crane boom, to fell tree; to skid, load, unload, or stack logs; or to pull stumps or clear brush. Includes operating stand-alone logging machines, such as log chippers.
O*NET code
45-4022.00
Job zone
2
Typical education
Less than a High School Diploma
Experience
None
National salary and employment
Median annual
$49,740
Hourly median
$23.91
Employment
21,060
Data year
2025
National salary distribution
Top skills
| Skill | Importance | Level |
|---|---|---|
| Operation and Control | 4.00 | 4.00 |
| Operations Monitoring | 3.75 | 3.88 |
| Equipment Maintenance | 3.12 | 3.00 |
| Quality Control Analysis | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| Monitoring | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| Active Listening | 3.00 | 2.25 |
| Troubleshooting | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| Critical Thinking | 2.88 | 2.75 |
| Complex Problem Solving | 2.88 | 2.12 |
| Repairing | 2.88 | 3.00 |
Typical tasks
- Inspect equipment for safety prior to use, and perform necessary basic maintenance tasks.
- Control hydraulic tractors equipped with tree clamps and booms to lift, swing, and bunch sheared trees.
- Grade logs according to characteristics such as knot size and straightness, and according to established industry or company standards.
- Drive straight or articulated tractors equipped with accessories such as bulldozer blades, grapples, logging arches, cable winches, and crane booms to skid, load, unload, or stack logs, pull stumps, or clear brush.
- Drive crawler or wheeled tractors to drag or transport logs from felling sites to log landing areas for processing and loading.
- Fill out required job or shift report forms.
- Drive tractors for building or repairing logging and skid roads.
- Drive and maneuver tractors and tree harvesters to shear the tops off of trees, cut and limb the trees, and cut the logs into desired lengths.
Technology
- BCS Woodlands Systems The Logger Tracker
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Word
- SAP software
- TradeTec TallyWorks Logs
- TradeTec TallyWorks TimeTracker
Logging Equipment Operators salary by location
Areas with the highest reported employment for this occupation.
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in ALMedian $47,810 · Employment 1,860
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in ORMedian $58,720 · Employment 1,860
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in GAMedian $45,080 · Employment 1,620
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in ARMedian $48,280 · Employment 1,280
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in MSMedian $49,620 · Employment 1,220
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in WAMedian $75,140 · Employment 1,150
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in NCMedian $48,420 · Employment 990
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in CAMedian $61,940 · Employment 950
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in SCMedian $47,650 · Employment 920
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in MIMedian $47,610 · Employment 860
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in MEMedian $44,780 · Employment 830
- Logging Equipment Operators Salary in LAMedian $58,600 · Employment 770
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Career and skills data: O*NET 31.0 (onetcenter.org). Salary and employment data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS, 2025 (bls.gov/oes). Figures are published survey estimates, not real-time market data.