Occupation · SOC 17-2061
Computer Hardware Engineers Salary
Computer Hardware Engineers earn a median of $161,740 a year in the United States, which is $77.76 an hour. The mean is $162,670, and 76,660 people are employed in the occupation.
The full pay range
A single average hides most of what a reader wants to know. BLS publishes the whole distribution, so here it is: each row is the annual salary at that point in the pay range for computer hardware engineers.
Annual salary by percentile May 2025
| Percentile | Annual salary | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $92,940 | entry level, or a lower-paying region |
| 25th percentile | $126,090 | early career |
| Median (50th) | $161,740 | half earn more, half earn less |
| 75th percentile | $202,990 | experienced |
| 90th percentile | $225,330 | top of the field |
Common questions
How much do computer hardware engineers make?
The median salary for computer hardware engineers in the United States is $161,740 a year, which is $77.76 an hour. The mean is $162,670. Median and mean differ because a small number of very high earners pull the mean upward, so the median is the better answer to what the job typically pays.
What is the highest salary for a computer hardware engineer?
The highest-paid 10 percent of computer hardware engineers earn $225,330 or more. That is the highest figure the survey publishes for this occupation; there is no reported maximum, and individual earnings above it are not broken out.
How many people work as computer hardware engineers in the US?
76,660, as of the May 2025 release. That covers wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments and excludes the self-employed, who are not surveyed.
How much do computer hardware engineers make a month?
About $13,478 a month before tax, which is the published annual median of $161,740 divided by twelve. BLS publishes annual and hourly wages rather than monthly, so treat this as arithmetic on the annual figure, not a separate measurement.
Do computer hardware engineers make $100,000 a year?
Typically, yes. The median is $161,740, so more than half of computer hardware engineers earn six figures, and the top 10 percent earn $225,330 or more.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure above is published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 release, for SOC code 17-2061. Nothing here is interpolated or averaged by this site. The survey covers wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments and excludes the self-employed. See how to read these figures for what that means in practice.