Every company that relies heavily on its assets needs capable professionals to ensure optimal equipment maintenance. For that reason, the demand for maintenance planners isn’t expected to go down any time soon and the maintenance planner salary figures are at an all-time high.
Maintenance planners are responsible for arranging necessary resources/raw materials/spare parts on time, creating plant maintenance schedules for maintenance teams, and reporting on everything.
At a glance, even an outsider can tell that those are quite heavy responsibilities to place on just one person’s shoulders. Because of that, these professionals are well-compensated almost everywhere in the United States.
If you’re a recruiter who wants to create a competitive package or a planner who’d like to know if they’re being paid fairly, keep reading. In this article, we’ll share the most up-to-date maintenance planner salary figures and break down the job description.
Let’s get started.
Average Maintenance Planner Salary [Updated Figures]
Of course, as with every other profession/job title, how much a maintenance planner makes depends on a bunch of different factors, including:
- The Cost of Living – as we’ll see shortly, in certain states and cities, maintenance planners earn higher than their peers from other locations.
- Years of Experience – some maintenance planners earn more than others based on their previous professional experience (entry-level jobs pay less).
- Education Level – some employers may also pay a higher salary to profiles with better qualifications.
There are many that share close-to-accurate salary estimates based on the reports collected from actual professionals.
If you're interested in learning more via video then watch below. Otherwise, skip ahead.
https://youtu.be/CFDspt5jnoo
We took the liberty of gathering data from the following sources:
1. Glassdoor
Glassdoor is one of the most reliable platforms from where you can check highly-accurate salary estimates for different job titles. You can also find candidates/set job alerts (whatever your goal is), read honest employee reviews about employers, and even see the list of perks and benefits they offer.
According to the 4,369 salary reports shared by actual maintenance planners in the US, the national average salary for this position is $58,560/year. Furthermore, the overall salary range starts from $41,000 per year and caps at $81,000 per year.
You can also get average figures for:
- Different industries
- sizes
- Years of experience
As of now, Glassdoor doesn’t have ample data on additional compensation.
2. PayScale
Unlike Glassdoor, PayScale has a more targeted purpose, in that it’s a platform that only shares salary data.
As per the various reports received from working professionals, the average base salary of maintenance planners is $72,071/year (or $27.37 per hour).
This figure is a bit higher than Glassdoor’s. The skewness in data is most likely a result of difference in locations and/or total of salary reports.
Furthermore, according to the website, maintenance planners receive additional compensation of $4,409 in cash bonuses and $2,023 in profit sharing. This brings the total compensation to about $78,503 per year.
Additionally, the most recent reports rank Detroit, Michigan as one of the highest paying cities. Dallas, Texas is one of the lowest paying locations of the lot.
Also, it’s interesting to note that Houston, despite being in the same state as Dallas, is the third highest-paying cities, which goes to show just how much the maintenance planner salary figures can vary even with such small differences in location.
3. Indeed
Indeed is a well-known, full-fledged online job board where recruiters, job seekers, and researchers alike can get up-to-date salary figures.
According to the platform, the average maintenance planner salary in the United States is $73,558/year. Additionally, they also get roughly $4,000 in profit sharing on an annual basis.
These figures are close to the data on PayScale. Considering that, the actual average is somewhere between $72,000 and $78,000.
Indeed also shows that maintenance planners typically receive parental leaves, health insurance, employee stock ownership plans, referral programs, and AD&D insurance as the top benefits. You can explore the complete list of common benefits on the page linked above.
In case you want to look up the highest paying locations, Indeed has got that covered as well. According to the salary reports, Pittsburgh, PA is the highest paying city. Here, a maintenance planner can earn up to $88,123 per year.
What Does a Maintenance Planner Do? [Typical Roles and Responsibilities]
If you’re wondering why maintenance planners, despite being mid-level profiles, earn so much, it’s because of what their job entails.
As a crucial part of the maintenance team, employers have to pay them according to what they’re worth.
Below, we’ve listed down some typical roles and responsibilities that are included in your average maintenance planner job descriptions:
Ensure the Maintenance Technicians and Mechanics Have Everything They Need
A planner’s main responsibility is to ensure smooth, delay-free maintenance work.
To that end, they ensure that the maintenance workers have all the spare parts, raw materials, and other resources they need to do their jobs.
This entails keeping a check on inventory, creating “packages” for planned and anticipated work orders, and restocking the inventory on time.
Create Preventive Maintenance Schedules
In some larger facilities, where it’s next-to-impossible for one person to handle everything, scheduling falls on a maintenance scheduler.
However, an employer with limited resources may prefer to hire a planner/scheduler instead.
Scheduling is an integral part of maintenance planning, which basically entails creating work orders in advance (usually on CMMS software) and allocating resources.
Collaborate with Maintenance Supervisors to Streamline Activities
In almost every company, a maintenance planner reports to a maintenance supervisor or a maintenance manager.
By bringing the supervisors/managers in the loop, they ensure that the maintenance work aligns with the strategic goals.
Final Thoughts
The average maintenance planner salary figures in the United States are relatively higher than most front-level managerial positions.
And that's completely justified, considering the seriousness of the responsibilities that this role entails.
All in all, the position is a stepping-stone for lucrative growth opportunities, starting from supervisor and going up to the maintenance director.
Josh is a partner at Maintenance Manager HQ.
