Asphalt Cost Calculator for Nebraska - Free 2026 Cost Estimates

Nebraska Asphalt Labor Costs — Verified from BLS OEWS (2025)

Every figure on this page is a published U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics value. Last verified 2026-06-20.

In Nebraska, paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators — the core trade for asphalt work — earn a mean wage of $23.95/hr ($49,810 per year) in the 2025 BLS OEWS release. That is 16% below the national average (national mean $59,000 per year). Nebraska employs about 390 paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators statewide. Related trades that price into a typical asphalt job include construction laborers ($48,350/yr), first-line supervisors of construction trades ($76,900/yr). Because labor is the largest variable cost on most asphalt projects, these published state wage levels are the biggest single reason asphalt costs differ between Nebraska and other states. Every figure here is a mean value published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and is refreshed automatically when BLS releases new OEWS data.

Across the trades that touch a typical asphalt job in Nebraska, BLS reports mean wages of paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators at $49,810 per year ($23.95/hr); construction laborers at $48,350 per year ($23.25/hr); first-line supervisors of construction trades at $76,900 per year ($36.97/hr). The spread between first-line supervisors of construction trades ($76,900) and construction laborers ($48,350) reflects differences in skill, certification, and supervisory responsibility on Nebraska job sites, and it is why a detailed, line-item estimate beats a single blended rate when you are budgeting asphalt work.

Half of Nebraska paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators earn less than the median of $45,760 per year — below the $49,810 mean, which a smaller number of higher earners pulls upward. For budgeting, the median is often the more realistic figure for routine asphalt crews. BLS counts roughly 390 paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators, 8,530 construction laborers, 6,020 first-line supervisors of construction trades employed across Nebraska, a measure of how deep the local asphalt-trade labor pool is and how much competition for crews you can expect when scheduling work.

When you budget a asphalt job in Nebraska, treat these BLS wage levels as the labor-rate floor: a crew's billed rate adds overhead, insurance, equipment, and margin on top of the $23.95/hr mean wage shown above. Because Nebraska's paving, surfacing & tamping equipment operators wages sit 16% below the national average, a asphalt quote that comes in far below these published rates is worth a second look — labor that cheap usually signals a different scope, materials, or crew experience. Use the calculator on this page to combine these Nebraska labor rates with your project's material quantities for a complete estimate.

Wages are statewide means published by BLS and reflect labor cost only — not the total installed cost of a project. Use the calculator below for a full materials-and-labor estimate, and always obtain written bids from licensed Nebraska contractors.