Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 45-2091, #319 of 1,410 by filings
Agricultural Equipment Operators
- Biggest sponsor
- MANDUJANO BROTHERS · 14% of its filings
- Busiest state
- TX · 24% of its filings
- Major group
- Farming, fishing and forestry · SOC 45
Weighing an offer for this job?
Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.
Median wage
$35,152
all PERM $103,272
Filings
95
#319 of 1,410
Approval
91.5%
field 96.8%
Median days
403
74 faster than the field
What it pays
Where its median offer sits among every occupation, then the whole ladder of certified offers by year and by state.
Median offered wage
$35,152above 18%
Approval rate
91.5%ahead of 19%
Median days to decision
403 daysahead of 72%
Each bar counts occupations at that value. More
Who files it
The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, the places the work sits, and who the workers were.
Sponsors filing it
- MANDUJANO BROTHERS 13 filings
- Garrett Trucking LLC 5 filings
- CROSSROADS SOD FARM, LLC 4 filings
- Cassaday Farms 3 filings
- Guy Koehl 3 filings
- VULGAMORE LAND AND CATTLE, INC 3 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 31 of 95 filings, 33% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Versfeld Hugo, LLC 25 filings
- Azarmehr Law Group 13 filings
- PETERS CONSULTING 7 filings
- Davis and Goldfarb PLLC 5 filings
- Karam Law 4 filings
- Ozment Law, PLC 4 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 58 of 95 filings, 61% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- Texas 23
- Iowa 10
- Kansas 8
- North Dakota 7
- Minnesota 5
- South Dakota 5
How this is counted
The worksite state on the application, which is where the job is and not where the company is headquartered. Volume by state across everyone is on the state map. These 6 states cover 58 of 95 filings.
Where the work is
- Coyanosa, TX 13
- Arion, IA 5
- Belvidere, TN 4
- Hancock, MN 4
- Batesville, MS 3
- Monroeville, NJ 3
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 32 of 95 filings.
- Every sponsor that files it, by state, approval rate, offered wage and time to a decision
- Every filing for it, PERM, wage requests and H-1B, case by case
Who filled these jobs, FY2016 to FY2023
From DOL's old form; the form in use since mid-2023 doesn't carry them. Top six of each.
Country of citizenship
- Mexico 223
- South Africa 136
- Canada 37
- Ukraine 12
- Guatemala 11
- Bolivia 6
Worker's education
- None 302
- High School 100
- Other 20
- Bachelor's 18
- Associate's 9
- Master's 1
Visa held when filed
- H-2A 249
- B-2 35
- B-1 30
- NOT IN USA 15
- EWI 4
- TN 3
Schools
- CENTRO PEDAGOGICO GUATEMALA 3
- N/A 3
- VRYHEID HIGH SCHOOL 3
- BACHILLERATO SABES 2
- GENERAL LAZARO CARDENAS 2
- HIGH SCHOOL DIRKIE UYS 2
Fields of study
- GENERAL 43
- HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA 14
- GENERAL STUDIES 9
- AGRICULTURE 7
- GENERAL EDUCATION 4
- HIGH SCHOOL 3
The job itself
What O*NET says the work is, what the market pays it by BLS's survey, its outlook, and DOL's wage levels year by year.
- United States28,500 jobs
- Northwestern Region of Texas nonmetropolitan areaCoyanosa
- Northwest Minnesota nonmetropolitan areaHancock
- middle half of pay (BLS)
- median
- 10th to 90th percentile
- DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
- median PERM offer
| Area | BLS median | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $41,730 | ||||
| Northwestern Region of Texas nonmetropolitan area | $34,260 | $29,640 | $32,282 | $34,944 | $37,586 |
| Northwest Minnesota nonmetropolitan area | $49,130 | $39,562 | $44,387 | $49,192 | $54,018 |
How these figures fit together
BLS surveys employers on what they pay everyone in a job; DOL builds its four levels from the same survey a year later (the July 2026 wage year uses BLS's May 2025 estimates). DOL publishes levels by area, not nationally, so the United States line has none. Levels are hourly in DOL's tables; here they're shown a year at 2,080 hours, as DOL computes them. The metros are the ones holding the most of this job's PERM filings, placed by Census's county files.
The block is the middle half of what employers report paying everyone in this job, citizen or not; the ticks under it are DOL's four prevailing wage levels for that metro, the floors a PERM or H-1B offer is held to. More
DOL's levels for this job in Northwestern Region of Texas nonmetropolitan area, year by year
Each July DOL resets the four levels from BLS's newest survey. A determination keeps the figures of the year it was issued in.
| Wage year | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | $29,640 | $32,282 | $34,944 | $37,586 |
| 2025-26 | $25,480 | $29,765 | $34,050 | $38,334 |
| 2024-25 | $21,840 | $26,395 | $30,930 | $35,485 |
| 2023-24 | $22,568 | $27,019 | $31,450 | $35,901 |
| 2022-23 | $24,606 | $28,350 | $32,074 | $35,818 |
| 2021-22 | $18,054 | $21,112 | $24,190 | $27,248 |
What the job is
Drive and control equipment to support agricultural activities such as tilling soil; planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops; feeding and herding livestock; or removing animal waste. May perform tasks such as crop baling or hay bucking. May operate stationary equipment to perform post-harvest tasks such as husking, shelling, threshing, and ginning.
- Preparation
- Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- O*NET Job Zone 1-2
- DOL's education basis
- None
- Wage year 2026-27
- Jobs, 2025 to 2035
- +8.6%
- About 10,100 openings a year (BLS)
- Typical entry
- No formal educational credential
- BLS
Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for rapid growth.
The work, most important first
- Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.
- Mix specified materials or chemicals, and dump solutions, powders, or seeds into planter or sprayer machinery.
- Spray fertilizer or pesticide solutions to control insects, fungus and weed growth, and diseases, using hand sprayers.
- Observe and listen to machinery operation to detect equipment malfunctions.
- Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust mechanisms on machinery.
- Operate or tend equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, combines, and irrigation equipment.
The education workers in it report
- 57%
Less than a High School Diploma
- 19%
High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
- 14%
Post-Secondary Certificate
- 10%
Some College Courses
Titles people use for it
Equipment Operator, Farm Equipment Operator, Loader Operator, Rake Operator, Baler Operator, Cutter Operator, Hay Baler, Packing Tractor Machine Operator.
Related jobs: Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse, Machine Feeders and Offbearers, Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic, Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders.
This section includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database and O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. PERM Tracker has modified some of this information (the shares are rounded and only the top tasks are shown); what changed. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Against other jobs
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 319 of 1,410 by volume: 318 filed at least as many filings, and 1,091 filed no more.
- Just above
- Painters, Construction and Maintenance 95 filings
- Just below
- Psychiatrists 94 filings
Other farming, fishing and forestry roles
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. More
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. Wages inside a group still swing hard, because the group holds every seniority level and every metro.
- #372 Animal Caretaker 74 filings · 6 denied
- #379 Forestry Crew Leader 72 filings · 26 denied
- #397 Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products 67 filings · none denied
- #223 Animal Breeders 183 filings · 1 denied
- #186 Nursery Worker 234 filings · 8 denied
- #149 First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers 326 filings · 26 denied
The same job on H-1B
5 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $39,083 a year; the middle half ran $30,000 to $43,888. By state and year in the salary explorer.
Notes on these numbers
Reading the wage
A floor, not a salary survey: every level and metro mixed. DOL's four wage levels for this job, by area.
What the median is
The median wage employers committed to in federal filings for this occupation. It mixes every experience level and every metro, and it's a floor: the employer must offer at least the prevailing wage DOL determines for the occupation, level and county. Across all PERM filings the middle half of offered wages runs $45,178 to $141,357, so a figure inside that band is unremarkable whichever occupation it belongs to. The levels page reads DOL's OFLC wage search live.
What these numbers don't say
4 notes
- The code is the identity
- This one is SOC 45-2091. Two SOC codes can carry the same job title, so a title that looks duplicated on the ranking is two different occupations. Match on the code when you're checking a specific filing.
- A median isn’t an offer
- It's the middle of all 95 wages committed to for this occupation across the country, entry level and principal alike. The same role's medians swing hard by worksite, which the state map shows directly.
- Approval isn’t about the occupation
- The denial rate moves with what happened in the filing rather than with the job title, so nothing here is a property of Agricultural Equipment Operators. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 95 counted here carry a decision date, because every case in DOL's disclosure files does, so a case still waiting is in none of them. The largest filer of this occupation is MANDUJANO BROTHERS. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.
The window these figures cover: DOL's PERM disclosure files for fiscal years 2024 to 2026, through the third quarter of 2026, 373,939 decided cases. Nothing pending is counted here. How each figure is built
Weighing an offer?
Compare it against this median, then check the state map, where the same occupation's medians swing hard by worksite.
Setting one?
All 1,410 occupations sort together on the wages page, and denial rates show how outcome moves with the offered wage.
Filings newer than DOL's last published file can't be attributed to this occupation until DOL publishes them. The live list on the case search page carries them by employer.
Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly
Employers and firms: Derived from DOL's disclosure files · data through Jun 30, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly load
O*NET occupation data: O*NET Database, USDOL/ETA (onetcenter.org) · data through Aug 16, 2026 · twice a year
BLS market pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (bls.gov) · data through May 31, 2025 · yearly, each spring
BLS employment projections: BLS Employment Projections (bls.gov) · data through Dec 31, 2025 · yearly, each autumn
DOL wage tables: DOL OFLC wage data downloads (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jul 1, 2026 · yearly, each july
What each source includes
Case data: Decided PERM cases only. A case still waiting isn't in here, so counts and durations describe finished cases.
Employers and firms: Employers, law firms and occupations ranked from decided cases only.
O*NET occupation data: What O*NET says each occupation is and takes: its description, tasks, Job Zone and the education workers report. A description of the job everywhere, not of any one employer's opening.
BLS market pay: What employers report paying everyone in each job, nationally, by state and by metro, from BLS's yearly survey (May of the year named). Citizens and immigrants alike; not PERM offers.
BLS employment projections: BLS's ten-year projection of each job's employment and yearly openings, and the entry education it calls typical. A projection, not a count.
DOL wage tables: The four prevailing wage levels DOL publishes for every job in every area, each wage year from 2021-22, as DOL's own tables print them. The floors an offer is held to, not what anyone was paid.
Cite this page
Waiting on a PERM case?
- When it'll likely be decided
- An email when DOL moves it