Recap of Solar Salaries
In our first post on Solar salaries, we used Work In Solar’s Job Posting data to investigate the range of solar salaries across all roles in the industry. Overall, Solar is a promising career path given it has an above average hourly wage: $44 / hour vs. a US average of $34 / hour for all private enterprises. This varies dramatically by role, experience level, and location, so we’ll begin by breaking down by our “job category,” which is how you can easily filter for jobs on our Job Board,
Note that some categories may have very different types of jobs within themselves. For example, the category of Manufacturing can include an assembly line technician, but also a PhD in Materials Science that is working on developing more efficient solar cells. So, we expect to see a wide distribution of salary ranges for this category. Conversely, a Solar Installer is a much more standardized role and category. While senior foremen are needed on-site, and they command a higher salary given their experience, most installers in the industry are entry-level to mid-level roles that perform similar job functions.
Overall Solar Salary Distribution
In this post, we’ll be using what’s commonly referred to as a Box Plot or Candlestick chart to compare and contrast distributions across job categories. These allow you to easily contextualize the range of numbers across a distribution. In our prior post, we showed the full breakdown by wage increments for the industry, but it would be impossible to quickly compare categories with so many salaries.
Below is the box plot of the overall salary distribution (using the midpoint between minimum and maximum salary ranges on listed job postings). Note that we have cut off the y-axis given there are salaries that are literally off the charts, typically Executive or advanced Research positions.
Box Plots will show the lowest (or 0%) salary, the 25% salary, 75% salary, and the max (or 100%) salary. So, across all our solar jobs, these hourly wages are $13, $28, $55, and $417 per hour. When thinking about your earnings potential it is important to pay close attention to the range between 25% and 75%. Looking at this chart allows us to quickly see that half of all solar salaries fall in between $28 and $55 per hour. This is a good range for you to use as a benchmark for your job category in your career exploration. If you have no solar experience whatsoever, you should expect to fall in the lower range ($13 to $28), and if you have 15 years of experience, you will likely fall in the upper range ($55 to $417).
Solar Salaries by Job Categories
Next, let’s break down the overall distribution by common job categories in solar. Below is the same box plot from above, but for 13 of our listed Job Categories today.
We’ll highlight a few of the many takeaways from this chart:
Solar field workers (Solar Installers, Roofers, Electricians, and Technicians) who are responsible for the hands-on installation and maintenance generally have similar wage ranges. These roles certainly have overlapping skill sets, so it is not surprising to see similar salary ranges
Within this group, Solar Installers have the lowest median salary at $26 / hour, but senior and experienced installers (e.g. lead installers for complex installations) can earn as much as the more technical electricians and technicians
Of these 4 categories, Electricians typically earn more with half of the jobs falling between the $34 / hour and $50 / hour
Roles that are involved directly in the development, but not necessarily on-site all the time such as Operations & Maintenance, Project Development, and Solar Designers command higher salaries. These roles either require prior in-the-field experience or more advanced degrees. Project Development roles see a wide range in this category with one of the highest 75th percentile salaries at $75 / hour
Manufacturing roles have the largest distribution, with salaries ranging from $18 / hour to the outlier of $417 for a senior researcher. However, there are still many well paying jobs with half of manufacturing roles earning more than $53 / hour. Manufacturing presents an opportunity for a sizeable increase in earnings as you progress to the higher paying jobs
Sales has the widest distribution between the 25th and 75th percentiles from $36 to $84 / hour. These roles typically have a wide variance as much of the compensation is based on commission. Some job postings will estimate compensation based on top sales representatives, while others may only include a base salary. If interviewing and deciding to accept a Sales position, make sure you understand compensation clearly. Sales jobs offer a high earnings potential if you are able to deliver. Check out our guide to unpacking Solar Sales Compensation here
General Admin also has a wide distribution. This is due to the variance in roles which can be everything from an HR Administrator to the Head of Legal for a solar firm
Below, we’ve included a "heatmap" view of the Box Plot charts above for those of you who want to dive into the exact numbers and prefer conditional formatting to help you visualize the differences.
Conclusion
All roles start at a healthy minimum wage with the potential to earn a solid salary. Solar entry-level positions offer room for earnings growth as you progress and gain new skills. Solar pays well above the national average ($34 / hour) already, but the distribution per job category gives you a good sense of your earnings potential for your career path.
Up next, we’ll break down salary ranges by experience level to give you a better sense of what’s achievable for where you are in your career. Subscribe to our blog to get the latest updates on solar! Let us know what other insights you have from analyzing this valuable data.