There is no official U.S. wage figure for “drone pilot”. Below are the nearest official figures, what each includes and leaves out, and the FAA's counts of remote pilots.
No. There is no drone pilot job category in the federal occupation list, the Standard Occupational Classification.
It has no occupation called drone pilot, and the word “drone” does not appear in its definitions or in its file of job titles.
Where the title is filed: the list's job-title file matches the title Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operator directly to occupation 17-3024, Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians, and lists Unmanned Air Systems Operator and Remotely Piloted Vehicle Engineering Technician there as examples.
A direct match means “all workers with the job title listed in the Direct Match Title File are classified into exactly one detailed SOC occupation code”.
2018 SOC Manual, Direct Match Title FileWhat that code covers: its definition reaches drone work only in its second sentence: such workers “May operate unmanned submarines, aircraft, or other equipment to observe or record visual information”.
Pilot occupations leave drone operators out: Commercial Pilots fly fixed-wing aircraft on nonscheduled routes or helicopters, and the definition says “Requires Commercial Pilot certificate”. Both that definition and the one for Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers exclude 17-3024.
No drone pilot profile: the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook's index sends Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operator, Unmanned Air Systems Operator and Remotely Piloted Vehicle Engineering Technician to electro-mechanical and mechatronics technologists and technicians.
No federal drone job series: the standard for the government's pilot series, GS-2181 Aircraft Operation (January 1988), never says drone, unmanned or remotely, and the government's list of white-collar series (December 2018) names no drone series.
Workers are counted by what they do, not what they are called: BLS says “workers are classified into occupations based on their job duties, not their job titles.” Someone whose employer calls them a drone pilot may be counted in another occupation, and no BLS source gives the share of 17-3024 who are drone operators.
Three occupation codes include drone work. The fourth row shows commercial pilots of crewed aircraft for comparison only: they are not drone pilots.
The federal occupation list files the title Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operator under electro-mechanical and mechatronics technologists and technicians, whose median annual wage was $73,900 in May 2025; drone operators are an unknown share of that group. Each row says what the code includes and what it leaves out. These are the national figures from May 2025 (six survey panels, November 2022 to May 2025; published May 15, 2026).
| Occupation | Workers counted | Median pay a year | Average annual pay (mean) | Lowest 10% earned less than | Highest 10% earned more than | Median pay an hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17-3024Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians | 15,520 | $73,900 | $76,420 | $47,840 | $109,890 | $35.53 |
| 27-4021Photographers | 51,760 | $44,660 | $55,410 | $30,820 | $91,810 | $21.47 |
| 19-4099Life, Physical, and Social Science Technicians, All Other | 73,910 | $62,280 | $66,280 | $39,000 | $102,690 | $29.94 |
| 53-2012Commercial Pilots (not drone pilots) | 47,630 | $123,220 | $146,080 | $58,850 | $266,620 | Not published |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (six survey panels, November 2022 to May 2025; published May 15, 2026). National figures; Commercial Pilots fly crewed aircraft and are not drone pilots. Median pay an hour for 53-2012: not published by BLS for this code (annual pay only).
Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians. What it includes: The job title Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operator, which the federal occupation list files here as a direct match, together with every mechatronics, robotics and automation technician. Drone operators are an unknown share.
What it leaves out: Self-employed workers: the survey counts wage and salary workers only.
Photographers. What it includes: All employed photographers, including aerial photographers, who may use drones.
What it leaves out: The 67 percent of photographers who are self-employed.
Life, Physical, and Social Science Technicians, All Other. What it includes: A catch-all code for science technicians not listed elsewhere. O*NET places Remote Sensing Technicians, whose tasks include operating sensors on drones, here, beside many unrelated technicians.
What it leaves out: Self-employed workers: the survey counts wage and salary workers only.
Commercial Pilots (not drone pilots). What it includes: Pilots of crewed airplanes on nonscheduled routes, and helicopter pilots. The job requires the FAA Commercial Pilot certificate.
What it leaves out: Drone operators: the definition excludes 17-3024, where they are coded. Not drone pilots; shown for comparison only.
The mean is each code's national average salary; the median is the middle wage, and in every row the mean is above the median. For comparison, the median wage for all U.S. occupations was $50,980 a year in May 2025 ($24.51 an hour).
The first row is mostly not drone work. The largest employers in 17-3024 are engineering services (13%), machinery manufacturing (11%), computer and electronic product manufacturing (11%), scientific research and development (10%) and transportation equipment manufacturing (9%), and the Handbook names drones only in passing, as equipment that “may include unmanned submarines, aircraft, or similar types of equipment”.
The figures on this page describe what employed workers were paid in May 2025. They are not a forecast for any one pilot, and this page gives no advice on pay, prices or careers.
Employers report what they paid their wage and salary workers. Drone pilots who work for themselves are in none of the figures.
Employers' pay, estimated from a survey: the figures are estimates of pay for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments, and employers report them. The May 2025 estimates pool six survey panels from November 2022 to May 2025.
No self-employed: the survey “does not include the self-employed, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers, or unpaid family workers.” Drone pilots who work for themselves are in none of the figures.
Not countedStraight-time pay: wages are straight-time gross pay. Commissions, production bonuses and tips count; overtime, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses and benefits do not.
Government work: state and local government are covered; federal workers are counted only for the U.S. Postal Service and the federal executive branch.
BLS publishes the same survey for the nation, every state, and about 530 metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. This page shows the national figures only.
Two job counts: the Handbook counts about 15,700 jobs in 17-3024 in 2025, more than the 15,520 in the table, because its counts come from BLS Employment Projections, which include the self-employed.
O*NET, the Labor Department's database of job tasks, puts drone tasks in several occupations.
“Operate large scale uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones for various commercial purposes”. The occupation list, as above, excludes drone operators from this code; the two sources are shown side by side here, not reconciled.
53-2012.00
“Program and calibrate drones for specific missions or tasks”, with Commercial Drone Pilot as an example apprenticeship title.
17-3024.00
“Operate remote sensing equipment on drones to collect data”. Their wage code, 19-4099, is a catch-all for “All life, physical, and social science technicians not listed separately”.
19-4099.03
The Handbook says aerial photographers “may travel in planes or helicopters or use drones” to photograph buildings, landscapes, scenery or events.
27-4021
A search of O*NET for “drone pilot” returns 85 occupations; the closest are Commercial Pilots, Airline Pilots, Remote Sensing Scientists and Technologists, Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians, Remote Sensing Technicians and Camera Operators.
The FAA counts certificates, not jobs, and publishes nothing about pay: neither its numbers page nor its forecast compendium says salary, wage, earn or income.
| What the FAA counts | Figure | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Remote pilots, in the FAA's forecast compendium | 493,396 | End of 2025 |
| Certificated remote pilots, on the FAA's numbers page | 481,760 | No date on the page; read November 14, 2026 |
| Remote pilots who hold only the Part 107 certificate | 78.0% | The compendium's 2025 count |
| Remote pilots who also hold a Part 61 pilot certificate for crewed aircraft | 22.0% | The compendium's 2025 count |
| Part 107 operators who reported at least one nonrecreational flight | 65.5% | 2025, preliminary survey |
| Active drones in the Part 107 registry | 424,516 | End of 2025 |
| Drones registered, on the FAA's numbers page | 837,513 | No date on the page; read November 14, 2026 |
| Remote pilots the FAA forecasts | 628,600, 28.0% above 2025 | 2030 |
The FAA's counts of remote pilots and drones, with the date each one gives.
The two count different things. This page prints none of the sites' figures.
Salary sites build their estimates from employer job postings, some with third-party data sources added, and a single employer's page may rest on a handful of postings.
The official figures come from a survey of what employers paid the people on their payroll, sorted by duties rather than job title.
Yes. Under Part 107, no one may act as remote pilot in command without a remote pilot certificate and current knowledge.
In the BLS Handbook's words, “Photographers who commercially operate drones, commonly known as unmanned aerial vehicles, must obtain certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).”
You must be at least 16 to hold the certificate, and you can take the knowledge test from age 14.
16+You pass the initial knowledge test; a pilot who holds a Part 61 certificate (not student) with a current flight review can take the FAA's online training instead.
To stay current, you pass the test or complete the recurrent training every 24 calendar months.
Our drone license guide covers each step, and our Part 107 practice test runs 60 questions in two hours, like the FAA exam.
Take the practice testThe certificate and the test first, then the kinds of drone work.
No official figure exists for drone pilots. The nearest is occupation 17-3024, where the federal occupation list files the title Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operator: its median pay was $73,900 a year in May 2025, for a group that is mostly mechatronics, robotics and automation technicians.
There is no official hourly figure for drone pilots either. The median hourly wage was $35.53 in 17-3024 and $21.47 for photographers in May 2025; BLS publishes no hourly figure for commercial pilots, only annual ones.
BLS publishes no entry-level figure. In 17-3024, “The lowest 10 percent earned less than $47,840” in May 2025. A percentile is not a starting salary: it marks the pay of the lowest-paid tenth of all workers in the code.
No official figure measures demand for drone pilots. The FAA counted over 70,000 more remote pilot certificates in December 2025 than a year earlier and forecasts 628,600 remote pilots by 2030; BLS projects jobs in 17-3024 to grow 3 percent from 2025 to 2035, “about as fast as the average”. None of these is a count of drone jobs.
The steps are set by the FAA: you must be at least 16 to hold the remote pilot certificate, you pass the initial knowledge test (you can take it from age 14), and you pass it again or complete recurrent training every 24 calendar months. Our drone license guide walks through them.
Photos: DJI press images.