Transportation and material moving occupations · SOC 53-2011
Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers
Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers earned a median of $226,600 per year in the U.S. in 2024, employment is projected to grow +3.9% from 2024–2034, with about 11,700 openings projected each year. Typical entry-level education: Bachelor's degree.
Median annual pay
$226,600
Above the $49,500 median for all U.S. occupations
Projected growth (2024–2034)
+3.9%
About average vs the +3.1% projected for all occupations
Annual openings (avg)
11,700
Projected 2024–2034
Employed (2024)
100,000
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree
Work experience
Less than 5 years
On-the-job training
Moderate-term on-the-job training
How to become one
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports as typical for entry, nationally. Typical is a measurement of the people already doing the work, not a rule: some enter with less and some with more.
- 1
Education most entrants hold
Bachelor's degree
This is what people entering the occupation usually hold, measured nationally. Individual employers set their own bar, in both directions.
- 2
Prior experience in a related occupation
Less than 5 years
Time spent in a different, related occupation before entering this one. It is not an internship or a training period.
- 3
Training after being hired
Moderate-term on-the-job training
Typical training received on the job once employed, such as an apprenticeship or a structured induction period.
Licensing is not in these figures.
Many occupations, including most of health care, teaching, law, accountancy and the skilled trades, require a state licence, certification or registration before you can work. Requirements are set by each state and are not part of the federal dataset above, so CampusPin cannot tell you whether this occupation is licensed where you live. Check your state's licensing board before committing to a route, because for a licensed occupation that requirement, not the typical credential, is the real gate.
The fields people actually study to get here are listed below, ordered by how many credentials U.S. colleges conferred in each.
What airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers earn state by state
Median annual pay in each of the 37 jurisdictions where the federal survey released an estimate, highest first — from $618,090 in Georgia to $97,680 in Missouri, a spread of $520,410. Not adjusted for cost of living, which is usually highest where pay is highest. The national median for this occupation in the same survey is $232,140.
| State | Median annual pay | Median hourly pay |
|---|---|---|
| Georgia | $618,090 | — |
| Idaho | $507,640 | — |
| Michigan | $428,570 | — |
| California | $353,900 | — |
| Kentucky | $350,950 | — |
| Colorado | $307,490 | — |
| Illinois | $293,490 | — |
| New York | $255,240 | — |
| Alaska | $232,140 | — |
| Washington | $229,900 | — |
| Arizona | $227,870 | — |
| Florida | $225,020 | — |
| Texas | $215,150 | — |
| Minnesota | $211,470 | — |
| Ohio | $204,170 | — |
| Connecticut | $199,870 | — |
| Nevada | $192,460 | — |
| Utah | $174,590 | — |
| Oregon | $173,190 | — |
| Indiana | $171,260 | — |
| Arkansas | $168,970 | — |
| Pennsylvania | $164,990 | — |
| Rhode Island | $164,880 | — |
| North Carolina | $151,540 | — |
| Maine | $147,930 | — |
| Kansas | $143,580 | — |
| Mississippi | $143,580 | — |
| South Carolina | $143,580 | — |
| Tennessee | $143,580 | — |
| Alabama | $136,990 | — |
| New Mexico | $136,990 | — |
| Oklahoma | $133,680 | — |
| Iowa | $131,730 | — |
| Nebraska | $131,650 | — |
| Louisiana | $120,740 | — |
| New Hampshire | $99,280 | — |
| Missouri | $97,680 | — |
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025. Wages are May 2025 estimates from the federal Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, which asks employers what they pay everyone currently working in the occupation — experienced and new alike. They are not starting salaries, not the earnings of recent graduates, and not adjusted for cost of living, which matters when comparing one state against another. Self-employed workers are not surveyed.
Explore your next step
Use CampusPin to search and compare U.S. colleges by cost, admissions, and location, and to browse college majors. CampusPin doesn't link this occupation to specific programs at specific institutions, always confirm what a college offers with the institution.
College majors that lead here
Fields associated with airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers, with how many credentials U.S. colleges conferred in each and the level most of them were. Ordered by credentials conferred, which measures how many people take a route rather than how good it is. Studying any of these does not lead only here, and this occupation is entered from other fields too.
Credentials conferred in 2023-24, U.S. Department of Education IPEDS completions. A certificate is a different credential from a degree, not a lesser one, and a count here is not evidence that a program is currently admitting students.
More occupations in this field
Occupations in the same federal BLS group (Transportation and material moving occupations), grouped by the standard occupational classification, not a curated related-occupation mapping.
Put these numbers in context
The pay figure above is an occupation-wide median, and the outlook is a national projection for the whole occupation, neither a personal nor a starting figure. These CampusPin guides explain how to read them and how a career connects to college choices.
Why a median wage is not a starting salary
How to read a BLS median, and why new graduates usually earn below it.
Does a pricier college pay off?
How college cost lines up with graduation and earnings, an association, not a ranking.
How one major connects to many careers
A major is a direction toward several occupations, not a single destination.
Compare cost, earnings, and debt together
Read price, earnings, and debt side by side without inventing one ROI score.
Source & methodology
Figures are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections program (Employment Projections). Wages are 2024; employment projections cover 2024–2034. Public domain (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Credit BLS.
- U.S. national figures only, wages and outlook vary by state, metro, employer, and experience.
- Median wage is the 2024 BLS estimate; projections are BLS model estimates for 2024–2034, not guarantees.
- Occupational data is national and is NOT an institution-specific or graduate outcome.
- Very high wages are capped by BLS and stored as null rather than a fabricated number.
Suggested citation
CampusPin. (2026). Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers, occupation profile. Retrieved from https://campuspin.com/careers/airline-pilots-copilots-and-flight-engineers
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