How To Become A Road Grader: What It Is and Career Path

What is a road grader and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a road grader. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.5 an hour? That's $44,719 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 22,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreRoad GraderUS Average

Salary

3.5

Avg. Salary $44,719

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.9

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 2.01%

Asian 0.90%

Black or African American 5.78%

Hispanic or Latino 12.74%

Unknown 4.35%

White 74.21%

Gender

female 4.76%

male 95.24%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

0.1

Work life balance is

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a road grader

Explore road grader education requirements

Most common road grader degrees

High School Diploma

41.7 %

Bachelor's

33.3 %

Associate

16.7 %

Start to develop specific road grader skills

Skills	Percentages
Loaders	60.84%
Mowing	39.16%

Complete relevant road grader training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New road graders learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a road grader based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real road grader resumes.

Research road grader duties and responsibilities

Provide feedback on errors, manage records on blackboard and proctore during exams.
Identify problems and determine corrective actions with plant management in reference to USDA regulations.
Operate dryers to dry wood, utility, and grade wood off the sort table into the proper cart.

Prepare your road grader resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your road grader resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a road grader resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable road grader resume templates

Build a professional road grader resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your road grader resume.