Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 47-2071.00, #595 of 1,410 by filings
Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators
- Biggest sponsor
- FSCII, LLC d/b/a Fred Smith Company · 26% of its filings
- Busiest state
- OH · 43% of its filings
- Major group
- Construction and extraction · SOC 47
Weighing an offer for this job?
Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.
Too few cases for a rate
23 decided filings: too few for an approval rate.
Why
Across every PERM case DOL decided in this window, 3.20% were denied. At that rate a file this size comes back clean most of the time whatever the occupation did, so a percentage would be a fact about how few cases there are. Telling a clean record apart from the field takes about 117 decided cases.
Median wage
$61,880
all PERM $103,272
Filings
23
#595 of 1,410
Approval
Not shown
withheld: 23 decided
Median days
484
7 slower 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
$61,880median of 23 filings, too few decided to rank
Approval rate
not shownunder 30 decided
Median days to decision
484 daysmiddle of 23 decided, too few to rank
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
- FSCII, LLC d/b/a Fred Smith Company 6 filings
- VASCO ASPHALT COMPANY 4 filings
- CAVES ROAD CONSTRUCTION CO., INC. 3 filings
- EAST PORT EXCAV INC. 3 filings
- LAWLESS MANAGMENT CO., INC. 3 filings
- 3C's Construction, Cladding and Coating, LLC 1 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 20 of 23 filings, 87% of the total.
Firms filing it
- LAW OFFICE OF NICOLETA D WOJNAR 10 filings
- Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart P.C. 6 filings
- LAW OFFICES OF DANIEL J SULLIVAN 2 filings
- J. Richard Villarin, Esq. 1 filings
- Law Office of Ronald D Richey 1 filings
- LAW OFFICES OF DANIEL J SULLIVAN ESQ 1 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 21 of 23 filings, 91% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- Ohio 10
- North Carolina 6
- New York 2
- Florida 1
- Maryland 1
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 5 states cover 20 of 23 filings.
Where the work is
- Raleigh, NC 6
- Massillon, OH 4
- Chagrin Falls, OH 3
- Cleveland, OH 3
- Hyattsville, MD 1
- Na, NY 1
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 18 of 23 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
Newspapers it advertised in
- 10 cases
The Plain Dealer
- 6 cases
The News & Observer/The Herald-Sun
- 3 cases
New York Post
- 1 cases
The Baltimore Sun
- 1 cases
Daily News
- 1 cases
Florida Times Union
How this is counted
The newspaper or professional journal named for each case's two print ads, one count per paper per case, however the filer spelled it.
How long before filing it began
- 0.0%
Under 30 days
- 0.0%
30 to 59 days
- 30%
60 to 89 days
- 26%
90 to 119 days
- 8.7%
120 to 149 days
- 30%
150 to 180 days
- 4.3%
Over 180 days
How this is counted
Days from the first recruitment step to the filing. 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(e) puts the job order and ads 30 to 180 days before filing.
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 States41,820 jobs
- Raleigh-Cary, NCRaleigh
- Cleveland, OHChagrin Falls, Cleveland
- Canton-Massillon, OHMassillon
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WVHyattsville
- 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 | $53,340 | ||||
| Raleigh-Cary, NC | $48,590 | $41,267 | $46,925 | $52,582 | $58,240 |
| Cleveland, OH | $60,320 | $44,283 | $54,122 | $63,981 | $73,819 |
| Canton-Massillon, OH | — | $42,078 | $52,333 | $62,608 | $72,862 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $58,800 | $46,654 | $53,435 | $60,216 | $66,997 |
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 Raleigh-Cary, NC, 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 | $41,267 | $46,925 | $52,582 | $58,240 |
| 2025-26 | $40,830 | $46,405 | $52,000 | $57,574 |
| 2024-25 | $37,794 | $43,992 | $50,211 | $56,410 |
| 2023-24 | $36,067 | $39,416 | $42,744 | $46,093 |
| 2022-23 | $34,424 | $39,021 | $43,638 | $48,235 |
| 2021-22 | $32,240 | $37,211 | $42,203 | $47,174 |
What the job is
Operate equipment used for applying concrete, asphalt, or other materials to road beds, parking lots, or airport runways and taxiways or for tamping gravel, dirt, or other materials. Includes concrete and asphalt paving machine operators, form tampers, tamping machine operators, and stone spreader operators.
- Preparation
- Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- O*NET Job Zone 1-2
- DOL's education basis
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Wage year 2026-27
- Jobs, 2025 to 2035
- -0.9%
- About 3,100 openings a year (BLS)
- Typical entry
- High school diploma or equivalent
- BLS
The work, most important first
- Start machine, engage clutch, and push and move levers to guide machine along forms or guidelines and to control the operation of machine attachments.
- Fill tanks, hoppers, or machines with paving materials.
- Control paving machines to push dump trucks and to maintain a constant flow of asphalt or other material into hoppers or screeds.
- Observe distribution of paving material to adjust machine settings or material flow, and indicate low spots for workers to add material.
- Coordinate truck dumping.
- Drive machines onto truck trailers, and drive trucks to transport machines and material to and from job sites.
The education workers in it report
- 41%
Less than a High School Diploma
- 38%
High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
- 21%
Post-Secondary Certificate
Titles people use for it
Equipment Operator (EO), Paver Operator, Roller Operator, Screed Operator, Asphalt Paver Operator, Asphalt Paving Machine Operator, Asphalt Raker, Asphalt Roller Operator.
Related jobs: Construction Laborers, Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators, Segmental Pavers, Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers, Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining, Pile Driver Operators.
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 595 of 1,410 by volume: 594 filed at least as many filings, and 815 filed no more.
- Just above
- Food Science Technicians 23 filings
- Just below
- Data Entry Keyers 23 filings
Other construction and extraction 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.
- #590 Painters, Construction and Maintenance 24 filings · 3 denied
- #586 Helpers--Pipelayers, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters 24 filings · none denied
- #578 Helpers--Roofers 25 filings · none denied
- #613 Painter Helper 22 filings · 3 denied
- #570 Stonemasons 26 filings · 3 denied
- #623 Rock Splitters, Quarry 21 filings · none denied
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 47-2071.00. 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 23 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 Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 23 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 FSCII, LLC d/b/a Fred Smith Company. 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