Maintenance & Refrigeration Pay Report — November 2026
As of November 1, 2026, the middle half of 3,502 NH3 Jobs postings with usable advertised pay listed $29.50 to $44.50 an hour, counting each posted range at its midpoint, or its minimum when no maximum was posted.
These figures describe the included postings only: advertised pay, not actual earnings. Trades covered: Ammonia / Industrial Refrigeration Tech, Commercial Refrigeration Tech, Controls Technician, HVAC Technician, Industrial Electrician, Industrial Maintenance Tech, Maintenance Coordinator, Maintenance Manager, Maintenance Supervisor, Maintenance Technician, Millwright.
By Jim Verrell, founder of NH3 Jobs · Updated November 1, 2026
Pay by trade
Two pay ranges for each trade: what companies list in live job ads, and what candidates NH3 Jobs presented to employers asked to be paid. Manager, supervisor and coordinator pay is shown per year.
| Trade | Company-listed pay range | Candidate asking pay range |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance Manager | $104,500–$145,000/yr278 job ads | $112,000–$155,000/yr |
| Maintenance Supervisor | $78,500–$96,500/yr132 job ads | $84,500–$104,500/yr |
| Controls Technician | $35.50–$52.50/hr490 job ads | $36.00–$44.50/hr33 presentations |
| Industrial Electrician | $32.50–$44.50/hr234 job ads | $40.00–$46.50/hr62 presentations |
| HVAC Technician | $32.00–$45.00/hr294 job ads | $34.00–$54.50/hr29 presentations |
| Ammonia / Industrial Refrigeration Tech | $31.50–$42.50/hr149 job ads | $37.00–$46.50/hr775 presentations |
| Maintenance Coordinator | $60,000–$87,500/yr68 job ads | $63,000–$92,000/yr |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech | $28.50–$38.00/hr1,231 job ads | $33.50–$42.00/hr278 presentations |
| Maintenance Technician | $24.50–$38.00/hr581 job ads | $27.00–$42.00/hr |
| Millwright | $28.00–$36.00/hr28 job ads | $31.00–$39.50/hr |
Pay by trade and state
The like-for-like view: one trade in one state, where at least 20 postings list pay.
| Trade and state | Company-listed pay range |
|---|---|
| Ammonia / Industrial Refrigeration Tech — California | $33.50–$38.50/hr22 job ads |
| Controls Technician — California | $42.50–$76.00/hr26 job ads |
| Controls Technician — Illinois | $38.50–$52.00/hr23 job ads |
| Controls Technician — Pennsylvania | $38.50–$56.50/hr21 job ads |
| Controls Technician — Texas | $31.00–$49.50/hr33 job ads |
| HVAC Technician — Texas | $30.50–$42.00/hr29 job ads |
| Industrial Electrician — California | $34.50–$44.00/hr22 job ads |
| Industrial Electrician — Texas | $27.00–$47.50/hr23 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Arizona | $30.50–$41.00/hr26 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — California | $30.00–$39.50/hr136 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Colorado | $31.00–$44.00/hr31 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Florida | $23.00–$35.50/hr27 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Georgia | $28.50–$37.50/hr39 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Illinois | $30.00–$38.00/hr71 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Indiana | $30.50–$37.50/hr22 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Iowa | $28.50–$37.00/hr37 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Massachusetts | $32.00–$43.00/hr25 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Michigan | $25.00–$35.00/hr27 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Minnesota | $29.00–$35.50/hr33 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Missouri | $26.00–$34.00/hr27 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — New Jersey | $30.00–$40.50/hr27 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — New York | $30.00–$36.50/hr58 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — North Carolina | $28.00–$37.00/hr35 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Ohio | $30.50–$41.00/hr50 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Pennsylvania | $29.50–$39.50/hr36 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — South Carolina | $28.00–$51.00/hr22 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Tennessee | $31.00–$36.00/hr22 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Texas | $26.00–$34.50/hr73 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Virginia | $29.00–$36.00/hr35 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Washington | $28.50–$38.00/hr28 job ads |
| Industrial Maintenance Tech — Wisconsin | $29.50–$39.00/hr59 job ads |
| Maintenance Manager — California | $126,000–$166,500/yr25 job ads |
| Maintenance Manager — Texas | $105,000–$133,000/yr21 job ads |
| Maintenance Supervisor — California | $87,500–$97,500/yr20 job ads |
| Maintenance Technician — California | $27.50–$41.00/hr64 job ads |
| Maintenance Technician — Georgia | $22.50–$32.50/hr25 job ads |
| Maintenance Technician — Illinois | $28.50–$44.50/hr29 job ads |
| Maintenance Technician — New York | $25.50–$40.50/hr34 job ads |
| Maintenance Technician — Pennsylvania | $25.00–$38.00/hr24 job ads |
| Maintenance Technician — Texas | $22.00–$31.50/hr34 job ads |
| Maintenance Technician — Wisconsin | $24.50–$35.50/hr21 job ads |
By state, all covered trades combined
Each state's mix of jobs differs (more manager postings raise the range), so this is not a ranking of which state pays best. Use the trade-and-state table to compare like with like.
| State | Company-listed pay range |
|---|---|
| New Jersey | $32.50–$55.00/hr64 job ads |
| Maryland | $32.00–$53.50/hr53 job ads |
| Maine | $34.50–$47.00/hr26 job ads |
| Michigan | $28.50–$44.50/hr90 job ads |
| Colorado | $31.00–$45.00/hr84 job ads |
| South Carolina | $29.00–$51.50/hr62 job ads |
| Illinois | $31.50–$47.00/hr175 job ads |
| Pennsylvania | $30.50–$44.50/hr112 job ads |
| Indiana | $30.00–$43.50/hr79 job ads |
| Massachusetts | $32.50–$48.00/hr62 job ads |
| California | $30.50–$45.00/hr336 job ads |
| Minnesota | $31.00–$48.00/hr88 job ads |
| Iowa | $30.00–$42.50/hr82 job ads |
| Ohio | $30.50–$42.00/hr140 job ads |
| Idaho | $29.50–$47.00/hr41 job ads |
| Tennessee | $30.50–$48.50/hr63 job ads |
| Alabama | $29.50–$41.50/hr57 job ads |
| Utah | $29.50–$43.50/hr31 job ads |
| New York | $30.00–$44.00/hr155 job ads |
| Wisconsin | $30.00–$42.00/hr148 job ads |
| Arizona | $30.00–$41.50/hr69 job ads |
| Oklahoma | $29.50–$40.00/hr28 job ads |
| North Carolina | $29.50–$51.50/hr105 job ads |
| Virginia | $29.00–$41.00/hr105 job ads |
| Arkansas | $27.00–$41.00/hr49 job ads |
| Kansas | $28.00–$38.50/hr45 job ads |
| Oregon | $31.00–$43.50/hr29 job ads |
| Washington | $29.50–$46.50/hr62 job ads |
| Florida | $26.50–$39.00/hr85 job ads |
| Connecticut | $26.50–$48.50/hr26 job ads |
| Missouri | $27.00–$38.50/hr59 job ads |
| Nebraska | $29.00–$40.00/hr27 job ads |
| Texas | $26.00–$43.00/hr230 job ads |
| Georgia | $28.50–$41.00/hr119 job ads |
| Kentucky | $29.00–$36.50/hr42 job ads |
| Louisiana | $26.50–$37.00/hr44 job ads |
How we measured
- The source is the pay printed in live job postings on NH3 Jobs for maintenance, refrigeration, controls and electrical roles in food plants, cold storage and related industry.
- Pay is in US dollars per hour. A yearly salary is divided by 2,080 hours (a full-time year). A posted range counts as its midpoint; a posting with only a minimum counts at its minimum.
- Each pay range is the middle half of the group: a quarter of the job ads (or presentations) sit below it and a quarter above it, so a few unusual ads cannot stretch it.
- Exclusions: postings with no usable pay, postings whose posted range is malformed, and postings outside $10 to $150 an hour. Figures are rounded to the nearest 50 cents.
- Candidates ask: the "wage request" of the candidates NH3 Jobs presented to employers from August 2021 to March 2026, adjusted to today's pay levels by how pay rose year to year in those same records. Counted per presentation (a person presented twice counts twice) and shown only where there were at least 20 presentations. No candidate or employer is ever named.
- Where a trade has fewer than 20 presentations (manager, supervisor, coordinator and maintenance technician), the candidate range is an estimate: the listed range raised by 5% to 14% depending on the trade, set from the gaps measured where real presentations exist (4% to 19%, about 11% on average). It is not measured from presentations.
- Manager, supervisor and coordinator pay is shown per year: the hourly figure times 2,080 hours, rounded to the nearest $500. Managers and supervisors are told apart by job title.
- This is advertised pay, not offers, placements or actual earnings. It is an index of the included postings, not a representative wage for a state. No employer is named, and any group with fewer than 20 postings is not shown.
- This is a rolling snapshot: the numbers refresh as postings open and close.