Occupation · SOC 53-7081
Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors Salary
Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors earn a median of $49,690 a year in the United States, which is $23.89 an hour. The mean is $52,820, and 147,240 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 refuse and recyclable material collectors.
Annual salary by percentile May 2025
| Percentile | Annual salary | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $33,590 | entry level, or a lower-paying region |
| 25th percentile | $39,080 | early career |
| Median (50th) | $49,690 | half earn more, half earn less |
| 75th percentile | $62,020 | experienced |
| 90th percentile | $75,900 | top of the field |
Common questions
How much do refuse and recyclable material collectors make?
The median salary for refuse and recyclable material collectors in the United States is $49,690 a year, which is $23.89 an hour. The mean is $52,820. 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 refuse and recyclable material collector?
The highest-paid 10 percent of refuse and recyclable material collectors earn $75,900 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 refuse and recyclable material collectors in the US?
147,240, 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 refuse and recyclable material collectors make a month?
About $4,141 a month before tax, which is the published annual median of $49,690 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 refuse and recyclable material collectors make $100,000 a year?
Rarely, on the published data. Even the best-paid 10 percent earn $75,900 or more against a median of $49,690, so a $100,000 figure usually involves overtime, self-employment (which this survey does not cover), or a move into a different role.
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 53-7081. 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.