How much do millwrights make in New Jersey in 2026?

Millwrights in New Jersey earn a median annual wage of $107,540, which works out to roughly $51.70 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That puts New Jersey millwrights well above what many tradespeople earn in neighboring states, reflecting both the density of industrial facilities in the region and the specialized mechanical skills the trade demands.

The full pay spread tells the real story. At the 25th percentile, millwrights in New Jersey earn $73,840 a year, or about $35.50 an hour. These are typically workers earlier in their careers, those still building hours on complex machinery alignment, precision leveling, and conveyor or turbine installation. At the 75th percentile, pay climbs to $126,320 annually — around $60.73 an hour. Workers at that level usually bring a combination of deep machine knowledge, the ability to read and interpret technical drawings with speed and accuracy, and a track record on high-stakes shutdowns or new equipment installs where downtime is expensive.

The spread between the 25th and 75th percentile is $52,480 a year. That is not a small gap. It means the decisions you make about specialization, employer type, and the complexity of work you take on have a real and compounding effect on your take-home pay over a career.

New Jersey's industrial base is one reason pay runs high here. The state has a significant concentration of pharmaceutical manufacturing, chemical processing plants, food production facilities, and heavy industrial sites along the Route 1 corridor and in the northern part of the state. Every one of those facilities relies on millwrights to install, maintain, align, and troubleshoot industrial machinery. When a production line goes down, millwrights are the ones called in — and that urgency is priced into wages.

Millwright work in New Jersey also tends to involve precision tolerances that not every mechanic can handle. Laser alignment of rotating equipment, setting anchor bolts to spec, grouting and shimming machinery bases, rigging and moving heavy equipment into tight spaces — these are skills that take years of hands-on work to develop. Employers pay for that reliability.

Overtime is a meaningful part of total compensation for many millwrights. Plant shutdowns, scheduled maintenance windows, and emergency repairs often happen on weekends or overnight. Workers who are available for that work and who have the seniority or skills to be called first can push their total earnings well above the hourly figures shown here.

No union scale data was available for millwrights in New Jersey at the time this page was compiled. Workers considering union versus open-shop employment should ask hiring halls or local contractors directly about current scale rates and benefit packages, since health and pension contributions can add significant value on top of base wages.

All figures on this page come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025. These are wage figures only and do not include overtime, benefits, or employer contributions to retirement plans.