Salaries / Forklift Operator
Transportation & Warehouse · SOC 53-7051
Forklift Operator salary
Industrial truck and forklift operators move materials around warehouses, factories, and storage yards.
Median annual
$42,000
Median hourly
$20.20
Typical range
$31,000 to $57,000
Source: National estimate (to be replaced by live BLS data). Figures are gross pay and vary by location, employer, and experience.
The pay range, visually.
Low end (about the 10th percentile), median, and high end (about the 90th percentile).
By state
State figures are estimates derived from the national median and a state wage index, shown to give a rough sense of local differences.
Your skills are a business
Ideas we have for people in transportation & warehouse.
The same experience that earns a paycheck as a forklift operator can start a business. Here are real ideas from our marketplace that fit this field.
Start a Pallet Recovery and Resale Business
Collect the wooden pallets piling up behind businesses, sort and repair them, and sell them back into the supply chain, a commodity trade with standing buyers hiding in plain sight.
Start a Staffing Agency
Place candidates with companies that already pay for people. Pick a niche, a model, and a fee structure, then land the first job order.
Start a Healthcare Staffing Agency
Place nurses, aides, and allied health workers with hospitals and facilities, earning a markup on every hour worked or a fee per placement.
Start a Government Contracting Business
Sell products or services to federal, state, and local agencies by registering, getting certified, and bidding on posted contracts.
You could hire forklift operators, not just be one.
We have a staffing calculator to price the work and a full course on how to start a staffing agency, so you can turn a field you already know into a business that puts other people to work.