The rigger who plans and prices the lift, not just hooks it
$129,780top of the range in New York · middle $62,640 / yr
AI augments this role
Riggers in the United States earn a median of $62,640 a year. Pay starts near $40,680. Pay reaches $129,780 at the top of the range in New York, the best-paying state for this work among those with at least 500 people in the job.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Riggers, SOC 49-9096). Last checked 9 September 2026.
Entry level
$40,680
Top of the range · New York
$129,780
Education
High school diploma + training
Wages — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Riggers). Top of the range is the highest state-level figure among states with at least 500 people in the job. AI-impact rating is PayCrunch's editorial assessment. Updated September 2026.
🆕 New & Trending AI Tools for RiggerReviewed September 2026
We track new AI-tool launches every week and refresh this list — here’s what’s gaining traction for Rigger work right now.
Workiz AINEWPaid / see site
Field-service software with an AI receptionist that answers and books calls.
How a Rigger uses it: never miss a job call — AI answers, quotes, and schedules
HandoffNEWPaid / see site
AI estimating that turns a scope into a priced proposal.
How a Rigger uses it: produce accurate estimates and proposals in minutes, not hours
Trunk ToolsNEWPaid / see site
AI assistant that answers questions from job plans, specs, and submittals on site.
How a Rigger uses it: ask a question and get the answer pulled straight from the project drawings/specs
NotebookLMNEWFree / $7.99 mo
Google tool that answers questions grounded only in the documents you give it — with citations.
How a Rigger uses it: load your own manuals, policies, or PDFs and ask questions that stay accurate to the source
ChatGPTFree / $20 mo
AI assistant that answers code, spec, and troubleshooting questions in plain language.
How a Rigger uses it: look up code requirements, check a spec, or troubleshoot a fault on the spot
ServiceTitan Titan IntelligenceQuote-based
AI across dispatch, scheduling, and customer follow-up for trades.
How a Rigger uses it: route jobs, price work, and follow up with customers automatically
BuildOpsCustom pricing
Commercial trades platform with AI estimating and job management.
How a Rigger uses it: manage bids, jobs, and techs with AI-assisted estimating
ClaudeFree / $20 mo
AI assistant known for careful writing, long-document analysis, and coding.
How a Rigger uses it: analyze big reports or spreadsheets and turn messy notes into clean, finished writing
Google GeminiFree / $20 mo
Google's AI assistant, built into Gmail, Docs, and Search.
How a Rigger uses it: draft and reply inside Google Workspace and research without leaving the page
The crane is on site, the load is on the ground, and the pick still has to land where the job needs it. A rigger is the person who makes that lift possible at a career level: working with the crane crew, preparing the pick, and seeing the load set. The work lives on construction, in shipyards, in plants, and anywhere a load has to move through the air instead of on a truck alone. You are not paid to admire the crane. You are paid because a load in the air is a serious object, and someone has to be accountable for the pick.
The card employers ask to see
The credential that travels is rigger certification from the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators. NCCCO grants it. The commission certifies riggers at more than one level. Holding the card shows you met the commission's requirements and completed its examination for that level. It proves an employer can treat you as a certified rigger rather than as a pair of hands who has "been around cranes." It does not make you the crane operator, and it does not replace a site rule that says who may call a pick. Operator certification and rigger certification are different cards. Carry the one the posting names.
People prepare by working around lifts, learning from a qualified rigger, and then sitting the commission's exam when their experience matches the level they want. Employers and union programs often arrange the preparation because an uncertified crew slows the job and raises everyone's risk. Read the commission's current requirements on its own site rather than a memory from a job five years ago. If your card has a term, renew it before it lapses. A lapsed card on a site that requires it is a day you do not work, and it is a fact a superintendent will remember.
Some regions and some employers add their own qualification on top, especially where a union apprenticeship is the door into the trade. That path can be the right one, and it can include classroom time plus time on real picks. Do not invent a national licence that replaces NCCCO if the employer asked for NCCCO. Do not ignore a local qualification if the hall or the contractor requires it. Put the granting body next to each card on the resume so a safety officer can match names without guessing.
A career built on the load and the pick
At the career level, the day is a sequence of picks, not a tour of hardware trivia. You learn what is being lifted, where it has to go, and who else is in the path. You work from the lift plan the job is using. You confirm the crew understands the pick before it starts. You watch the load while it moves, and you care about the set: the load arriving where it belongs, stable, so the next trade can work. When something about the pick is wrong, you stop it. Halting a bad pick takes nerve, and it is the job. A rigger who will not halt a bad pick is a liability with a hard hat.
Communication with the operator is constant and plain. You agree on the pick, you keep the picture shared while the load is moving, and you do not assume the operator sees what you see. The rest of the site needs the same plainness. Ironworkers, millwrights, electricians, and laborers may all be near a set. You do not own their work. You do own whether the load and the people can share the space safely while the pick is yours. Superintendents remember riggers who make that boundary clear without shouting the whole morning away.
Gear is part of the accountability even when a career description stays off the how-to. You use equipment that is fit for the pick, you take damaged gear out of service, and you refuse a shortcut that treats the load as lighter or simpler than it is. The details of selection and setup belong to your training and to the qualified people on your crew, not to a general article. What belongs here is the stance: the rigger is the person who will not pretend a pick is ready. Employers pay for that stance because a dropped load or a bad set costs more than a delay.
Conditions change the day. Wind, a congested deck, a load that arrived different from the drawing, a crane that has to walk or swing in a tighter space than the plan loved. You say what changed. You wait for the plan to catch up. Heroic improvisation is how people get hurt and how riggers get a reputation they cannot insure. The calm pick, repeated, is the whole career. Anyone can describe one dramatic lift. The hire is the person who can describe a month of ordinary ones that all landed right. On a job with more than one crane, that habit matters twice. You know which pick is yours, you leave another crew's pick alone, and you still speak up if the load and the people cannot share the space. Foremen notice the rigger who can work beside another crew without turning the deck into a contest. That reputation is how the next call comes in when the job is done. A rigger who needs a fresh introduction on every site is still early, no matter how long the resume looks.
How a contractor hires a rigger
Contractors hire from people who already have time around cranes, often through a union hall or a foreman who has seen them on a pick. The resume, when there is one, should name the kinds of sites, the card you hold, and a pick you were accountable for, described at the level of what the load was and where it had to go. Skip the swagger. A superintendent reading applications has heard swagger. They want to know if you will stop a pick and if other trades can work beside you.
The talk is concrete. They may ask about a pick that changed mid-morning and what you did. They may ask who you tell when gear is unfit. They may ask how you work with an operator you have just met. Answer with the sequence of decisions, not with a lesson in technique. Ask, in return, who directs the pick on their job, whether NCCCO or another card is mandatory, and how overtime and per diem work if the site is away from home. Travel and hours change the real value of the rate. Get them spoken before you report.
Show up able to complete the site's own orientation. That orientation is the contractor's rules for that job. Orientation does not replace your certification, and the card does not replace listening when the site explains its rules. People lose days of work because they treated orientation as paperwork beneath them. It is the first test of whether you can follow a rule you did not write. People who fail that test do not get the second one.
From the ground crew to the person who owns the pick
Early work is helping on picks a senior rigger still owns: learning the site's rhythm, handling gear carefully, and speaking up when you do not understand the pick. The middle of the career is the certified rigger who is trusted to run the pick with the operator. Later, some people become foremen, general foremen, or the lift director the job looks to when several cranes are in the air. Others move toward crane operation itself, which is a different certification and a different chair. A few move into site safety roles that grew out of years of watching picks go right and wrong.
What moves you up is a record of sets that were boring in the best way, plus the times you stopped a pick and were right. Keep that record as stories you can tell cleanly, without turning them into folklore. Mentoring a newer rigger counts when you actually teach judgment, including when to wait. It counts less when you only assign the unpleasant part of the day. The trade is small enough that your name arrives on the next job before you do.
Two New York figures that are not the same statistic
These wages are Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for Riggers. Entry pay is $40,680. The national median is $62,640. The gap from entry to the median is $21,960. Entry fits a rigger early in the trade, still closely directed. The national median fits a working rigger who is already accountable for picks.
New York is both the high end of the published range and the highest median, and those are different statistics. The high end of the published range in New York is $129,780. New York's median is $105,600. From the national median up to the high end, the gap is $67,140. From the national median up to the New York median, the gap is $42,960. If you say "New York pay" without saying which statistic, you are mixing the top of the published range with the middle. Do that in a negotiation and the other side will notice.
Other medians are California at $85,730, Nevada at $81,720, Washington at $77,100, and Georgia at $67,200. Louisiana's median is $43,660, the low end of the published medians. The gap between New York's median and Louisiana's median is $61,940. A move changes the middle by a large sum. It still does not convert Louisiana, or anywhere else, into New York's high end. Cite $105,600 when you mean New York's median. Cite $129,780 when you mean the high end of the published range.
Pay talk that keeps the load and the numbers separate
An offer near $40,680 matches early directed work. The $21,960 distance to the national median of $62,640 is the case you make with certification, with picks you can describe, and with a reputation for stopping the wrong one. If that case is already true, open at $62,640. Do not open at New York's high end because the crane on the job is large. Size of equipment is not a synonym for the top of the published range.
On a New York job, say the statistic twice if you have to. The median is $105,600, which is $42,960 above the national median. The high end of the published range is $129,780, which is $67,140 above the national median. The high end belongs in a talk about scope at the top of that range: complex picks, leadership of other riggers, a market that actually pays there. California, Nevada, Washington, and Georgia each have their own medians if the work is there. Use those middles for those places. Louisiana's lower median is information about the middle, useful when an offer is real, useless as a taunt.
Per diem, overtime, and show-up pay can matter as much as the base rate on a travel job. Ask how each is triggered, and do not fold a best-week story into the base. Then put the base back on one published figure: entry, the national median, a state median, or New York's high end of the published range. A rigger's value is judgment about a load and a pick. The wage talk is a smaller version of the same judgment. Name the figure that fits, and leave the one that does not.
The top of Rigger pay — and how to get there with AI
$129,780what Rigger pay reaches in New York
Highest state-level top-of-range annual wage for Riggers, among states with at least 500 people in the job. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
And the role it leads to — Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers — reaches $167,090 in California.
$40,680entry$62,640middle$129,780top end
Mid-range riggers execute a lift somebody else planned; at the top of this range you are the one who walked the site, chose the gear against the load and the openings, drew the plan and stood behind it.
Selecting cables, pulleys and winches for a given load weight and size, working equipment through narrow openings with chainfalls and gin poles, attaching blocks to overhead beams, testing the rigging before it takes weight: all of that is judgment nobody can fake, and most riggers give it away verbally. Written down as a lift plan with a drawing, a gear list and a method, the same judgment becomes a document a client pays for and an insurer accepts. Autodesk AutoCAD turns your sketch into something a general contractor will circulate, and a written plan is what separates a day rate from a quoted job.
Your playbook, by where you are now
Just startingLearn the gear until the choice is instant
Know your working load limits cold, for every sling, shackle, block and winch on the truck, before you rely on a chart.
Test rigging and inspect gear yourself each time rather than trusting the last crew's tag.
Practise signalling and verbally directing a hoist until your instructions are short enough to be unambiguous over noise.
Keep a log of every awkward move you have made through a confined space, with the gear you chose and what you would change.
What proves it: A certification plus a personal log of lifts with your own gear selections recorded.
Realistic span: the first three years
A few years inPut the plan on paper
Draw your lifts in Autodesk AutoCAD, showing load, pick points, gear, ground conditions and the route through the building.
Build a gear and load reference in Microsoft Excel so selection and the paperwork behind it take minutes rather than a phone call.
Do the site survey before the quote goes out and write down access, headroom, floor loading and anything that will cost a day.
Ask ChatGPT to turn your survey notes into the written method statement clients expect, then check every load figure and safety step against the standard yourself.
Sit in on the pricing of jobs you rigged and find out where the estimate was wrong.
What proves it: A lift plan you drew and signed that a contractor built a programme around.
Realistic span: years four to eight
ExperiencedBe the name on the quote
Run the site surveys and produce the lift plan as the deliverable, so the plan is what wins the work.
Specialise where planning matters most, machinery moves into live plant, theatrical installations, marine work, all of which pay for judgment rather than hours.
Train the crew on rigging selection and dismantling and storing gear properly, so quality does not depend on which shift turns up.
Look at market as well as employer; New York concentrates the kind of constrained, high-value lifts that fund this role.
Cross into utility and power line work if you want the ladder above this trade, where rigging skill transfers directly.
What proves it: Signed lift plans and site surveys carrying your name across a year of jobs.
Realistic span: nine years onward
The next 90 days
On your next non-routine lift, produce the plan before anyone asks for one. Walk the site, measure the openings, note the floor and ground conditions, weigh or confirm the load, and pick the cables, blocks and winches with the reasoning written next to each choice. Draw it, even roughly, then redraw it properly afterwards. Add the sequence, the signals and where each person stands. Give it to your supervisor as a courtesy, not a proposal. Do that four or five times and you will have a portfolio that changes what companies think you are, because a rigger who hands over a plan is being priced differently from a rigger who hooks a load.
Wage figures: BLS OEWS, May 2025. The playbook is PayCrunch editorial guidance, not a guarantee of pay or placement.
Every figure is the national median from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS) shown on that role’s own page.
Never used AI before? Start here (2 minutes).
Open 3D Lift Plan first. It is the tool crane and rigging crews actually use to model a lift — pick the crane, place the load, and it renders the geometry, radius, and capacity so you can see whether the pick works before anyone hooks up. Learn to build a plan in it and you stop being the person who just hooks the load and start being the person who plans it.
For calculations and certification study, use ChatGPT or Claude as a free tutor — have it walk you through sling-angle load math, D/d ratios, and center-of-gravity problems, then always check the answer against a real load chart and the ASME tables. Never trust an AI number for an actual lift without verifying it.
The one rule, forever: AI lift plans and load calculations are decision support only — never a substitute for a qualified rigger's judgment. Verify every weight, sling angle, and capacity against the manufacturer's load chart and the actual hardware, and follow OSHA 1926 Subpart CC and ASME B30.9 / B30.5. An AI cannot see the soft ground, the frayed sling, the wind, or the untagged load. If the numbers or conditions do not check out, the lift stops.
The plays — exact steps, exact prompts
Do these in order. Each one is copy-paste ready. You do not need to know anything about AI going in.
1
Build and check lift plans with 3D software
Why this pays: The rigger who can produce a stamped-quality lift plan — not just hook the load — is the one who gets the critical-lift and lift-director work that pays at the top of the scale. Planning is where the money and the responsibility concentrate.
3D Lift Plan (A1A Software)ChatGPTDICA Outrigger Pad Calculator
1
Model the pick in 3D Lift Plan: enter crane, boom, counterweight, load weight and dimensions, and obstructions, then confirm the radius and percent of chart capacity before you ever rig it.
2
Use ChatGPT to sanity-check the rigging math, then verify against the chart.
Copy-paste this prompt
You are a rigging instructor. For a [12,000 lb] load lifted with a two-leg bridle sling at a [60]-degree angle from horizontal, calculate the tension in each sling leg and the minimum sling rated capacity I need. Show the formula and the load-angle factor, and remind me to verify against the sling tag and ASME B30.9.
Use it to learn and cross-check the math — then confirm every number against the actual sling tag and load chart before the lift.
3
Size the outrigger and ground bearing with the DICA calculator so the crane does not sink or tip on soft ground.
What you'll haveLift plans you can produce and defend — the skill that moves you from ground rigger to planner and lift director.
2
Certify up (NCCCO Rigger II + Signalperson) with an AI tutor
Why this pays: Certifications are the clearest pay bump in rigging — a documented NCCCO Rigger Level II and Signalperson opens the higher-rate industrial and crane jobs and the lift-director track.
ChatGPTClaudeNCCCO reference materials
1
Have Claude build a study plan from the published NCCCO Rigger candidate handbook outline.
Copy-paste this prompt
Act as a rigging exam coach. Build me a 6-week study plan for the NCCCO Rigger Level II and Signalperson written and practical exams. Break it into weekly topics — load charts, sling angles, hitch configurations, hand signals, center of gravity — with daily 30-minute drills and a self-quiz each Friday.
Study aid only — pair it with the official NCCCO references and hands-on practice; the practical exam is judged on real technique.
2
Drill hand signals and load-chart reading until they are automatic, and quiz yourself daily with ChatGPT.
What you'll haveCertifications earned on the first attempt — the credential that unlocks the higher-paying lifts.
3
Specialize in a high-rate niche (entertainment, wind, industrial)
Why this pays: Rigging pay varies more by sector than by title. Entertainment (ETCP-certified), wind-turbine, and petrochemical turnaround rigging pay well above general construction, and AI helps you learn a niche's standards fast.
PerplexityChatGPTYouTube
1
Pick a niche and use Perplexity to map its certifications, standards, and top employers.
Copy-paste this prompt
I am a rigger wanting to move into [entertainment / theatrical] rigging. List the certifications that matter (for example ETCP), the key standards (ANSI E1 series), the skills that separate top riggers, and the types of employers and pay ranges. Cite sources.
Use it to build a roadmap; verify every certification and standard on the certifying body's own site before you rely on it.
2
Build the specific knowledge — theatrical points, arena rigging, or uptower wind rigging — with targeted daily study.
What you'll haveA specialty that pays a premium — the fastest route from median to top-of-range rigging pay.
4
Write and audit JHAs and lift documentation
Why this pays: The rigger who documents lifts cleanly — JHA, lift plan, rigging sketch — becomes the crew's go-to and the candidate for lead or supervisor, where the pay is. Good paperwork also prevents the incident that ends a career.
ChatGPTClaude3D Lift Plan
1
Draft a Job Hazard Analysis for a specific lift type, then tailor it to the site.
Copy-paste this prompt
Draft a Job Hazard Analysis template for a [critical crane lift of a rooftop HVAC unit]. List the steps, the hazards at each step, and the controls, referencing OSHA 1926 Subpart CC. Leave blanks for site-specific weights, radius, and ground conditions.
A starting template only — a competent person must fill in and verify the real weights, conditions, and controls on site.
2
Attach the 3D Lift Plan render and rigging sketch to the JHA for the pre-lift meeting so the whole crew sees the plan.
What you'll haveProfessional lift documentation that marks you as lead material — and keeps the crew safe.
5
Move into estimating and your own rigging services
Why this pays: The top of the rigging pay band is supervision, estimating, and ownership — pricing lifts and running crews. AI helps you bid and coordinate like a much larger outfit.
ChatGPTGoogle Sheets3D Lift Plan
1
Use a 3D Lift Plan study plus AI to build a defensible quote for a lift job.
Copy-paste this prompt
Help me build a rigging and lift quote for [setting three 8,000 lb rooftop units on a 4-story building]. List cost line items I should include: crane and operator, rigging crew, permits, ground protection, engineered lift plan, insurance, and mobilization. Ask me for the rates and produce a clean quote.
AI structures the estimate; you supply real local rates and verify the engineering and permit requirements yourself.
2
Track jobs, follow-ups, and equipment in a simple AI-assisted Google Sheets file.
What you'll haveThe ability to price and coordinate lifts — the business skill behind the highest rigging incomes.
Your 12-month sequence to the top of the range
How the plays above stack into a path from median pay toward the $129,780 tier.
Month 1
Learn 3D Lift Plan on real pick geometry; rebuild lifts you have already done and compare the plan to what actually happened.
Months 2-3
Use an AI tutor to prep and pass NCCCO Rigger Level II and Signalperson.
Months 3-6
Pick a high-rate niche (entertainment/ETCP, wind, or industrial) and build its specific certifications and knowledge.
Months 6-12
Own the lift documentation on your crew and step toward lead or lift director, or start quoting rigging work.
Gear for this job
As an Amazon Associate, PayCrunch earns from qualifying purchases. Links to books and tools are for the job on this page; we only recommend what we’d use in the work.
Independent NCCCO-aligned rigger / signal-person field reference (ASIN B0H632DHVG) for leftover NCCCO Signalperson / ASME B30 / hand signals this page names — play 2 is Certify up (NCCCO Rigger II + Signalperson); tools name NCCCO reference materials; FAQ is NCCCO Rigger Level II plus Signalperson. Covers hand signals, sling angles, load charts, ASME B30 inspection, and Level I / Signal Person prep. Supplement only — not the official NCCCO handbook and not a claim it is the Rigger Level II exam book. Confirm B0H632DHVG. Live page HTTP 200, no PC_GEAR / amazon.com/dp / tag=paycrunch-20 at 2026-09-17 2:01 PM PT.
Next steps for a Rigger
Some links below are affiliate or partner links. PayCrunch may earn a commission if you enroll or subscribe through them, at no extra cost to you. Wage figures on this page still come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not from these programs.
Rigger work is specific enough that a stamped 'check out these courses' block would be noise. BLS files this work as Riggers (SOC 49-9096). O*NET Job Zone 2 is typical: a high-school diploma plus short vocational training, so the honest next credential is a short certificate or vocational program — not a random catalog dump.
The occupation's listed knowledge areas include Production and Processing and Design; the links search those subjects, not a generic 'career courses' list.
Riggers in this dataset list Autodesk AutoCAD among the tools in use, so a program that names that stack is a better fit than a survey course.
Coursera search for production and processing — a short certificate or vocational program that lines up with maintenance, not a generic professional-development aisle.
Write a Rigger resume, or one aimed at Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers, instead of a blank template. Resume Now is a resume builder; we are not claiming a counted template set for this SOC.
A Rigger resume that names the actual tasks on this page, or the step-up title Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers, beats a blank template when you apply.
What Riggers earn by state
These are the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own figures for Riggers, state by state — not a cost-of-living adjustment applied to the national number. Only states employing at least 500 people in the occupation are shown, because a state median drawn from a handful of workers is noise rather than a signal.
New York
$105,600
highest of them · +69% vs the national median
Louisiana
$43,660
lowest of the 9 states that qualify · -30% vs the national median
The same job pays $61,940 more a year at the median in New York than in Louisiana — 142% higher. That gap is what the Bureau measured, before any question of what it costs to live in either place. New York also carries the top of this job’s range, $129,780 — the figure quoted at the head of this page.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 49-9096. 9 states clear the 500-employee reporting floor for this occupation; those below it are left out rather than shown with a wide error band.
Free data. Use any of it.
PayCrunch publishes verified, BLS-sourced salary + AI-playbook data on 1,000+ professions — free, no signup.
No — rigging is hands-on and safety-critical; someone has to inspect the hardware, read the actual conditions, and hook the load. What AI changes is planning and documentation: the rigger who uses lift-planning software and AI to plan and prove lifts moves up to lift director while others stay on the hook.
Can I trust an AI load calculation?
Only as a check, never as the authority. AI can get sling-angle math or chart reading wrong, and it cannot see your actual hardware. Always verify against the sling tag, the crane load chart, and ASME/OSHA before the lift.
Which certification pays off most?
Generally NCCCO Rigger Level II plus Signalperson for construction and industrial work, and ETCP for entertainment. Document them — the credential, not the years, is what unlocks the higher-rate lifts.
How does AI actually raise a rigger's pay?
By moving you up the value chain — from hooking loads to planning them. Lift plans, JHAs, and estimates are where the responsibility and pay concentrate, and AI lets you produce them fast and professionally.
Is it safe to use ChatGPT for lift planning?
For learning and drafting, yes; for the actual lift, only as an input you verify. Never let an AI number drive a real pick without checking the load chart and the physical rigging. The signed lift is your responsibility.
Methodology & sources
Salary (median, 10th, top of the range) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS.
By state — the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own state medians, limited to states employing at least 500 people in the occupation. No cost-of-living arithmetic is applied to a wage anywhere on this page.
The plays — PayCrunch's own step-by-step guidance using publicly available AI tools. Tool names/URLs are real and current as of August 2026; prompts written to work as-is. Verify any professional output before relying on it.