Supervisor of Mechanics and Installers Salary in Ohio: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

A first-line supervisor of mechanics, installers, and repairers in Ohio earns a median of $78,730 a year, or about $37.85 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most workers in the role land between $61,250 and $97,200, with the lowest tenth near $49,040 and the top tenth above $117,120. That median runs just under the national figure, and Ohio’s flat-leaning income tax leaves more in your check than most people expect.

How Ohio pay compares to the national number

The national median for this role is $79,860 a year, per BLS OEWS 2025. Ohio’s median of $78,730 sits $1,130 below that, a gap of about 1.4 percent. For a supervisor weighing an offer, that is close enough to call even. The pay you see in Ohio tracks the national market almost dollar for dollar, and what tips the balance is cost of living, which runs lower across most of the state than in coastal markets.

The wider spread tells you more than the median alone. Ohio’s 10th percentile of $49,040 marks roughly where a newer supervisor in a small shop or rural county starts. The 90th percentile of $117,120 is what a seasoned supervisor running a large maintenance crew, a fleet operation, or a unionized plant floor can reach. That is a $68,080 spread from bottom to top, so two people with the same job title in this state can be more than double each other’s pay depending on industry, employer size, and years on the job.

The state mean of $80,750 sits above the median of $78,730, which is normal for this kind of pay curve. A cluster of high earners at the top pulls the average up, so if a recruiter quotes you the “average” number, know that fewer than half of Ohio supervisors actually clear it. The median is the more honest midpoint, and it is the figure to anchor your own expectations on.

One more way to read the comparison: Ohio’s $1,130 shortfall against the national median is smaller than the swing you see between Ohio’s own metros. Cincinnati at $82,330 already beats the national median of $79,860 by $2,470, while Toledo at $78,180 trails it by $1,680. So the state-versus-national gap is mostly a story about which Ohio metro you work in. A supervisor in Cincinnati or Columbus is out-earning the typical American in this role, while one in Toledo or Akron is slightly behind it, all without leaving the state. That is why a single national or state median can mislead, and why the metro table below is the number to trust for your own market.

Ohio pay by experience level

Pay for this role climbs steadily with experience, and the BLS percentile points give a clean read on where you fall. Entry-level supervisors, often someone newly promoted from a senior technician seat, start near the 10th percentile. The jump from median to the 75th percentile usually comes from taking on a larger crew, a second shift, or a higher-stakes industry such as power, rail, or aerospace maintenance.

The biggest single raise on this ladder is the move from the 25th to the 50th percentile, a $17,480 step. That is the stretch where a supervisor proves they can run a crew without daily oversight, hit uptime targets, and handle scheduling and safety on their own. Once past the median, gains get steeper to earn but larger in dollar terms: the climb from the 75th to the 90th percentile adds $19,920, almost always tied to a move into a bigger plant, a regional role, or an industry that pays a premium for skilled maintenance leadership.

Put the full ladder in context. From the entry-level $49,040 to the senior $117,120, the role more than doubles in pay, a $68,080 climb over a career. The first half of that climb, from $49,040 to the median $78,730, is the part most supervisors complete in their first several years once they have a crew reporting to them. The second half, from $78,730 to $117,120, is where the role separates. Two thirds of supervisors never reach the 90th percentile, because that pay almost always requires either a high-stakes industry or a step up to a multi-crew or facility-wide role. If you are sitting at the median today, the honest question is which of those two doors you can open, since ordinary tenure alone rarely carries you past the 75th percentile of $97,200.

Ohio pay by metro area

Where you work inside Ohio matters. The five largest metros for this role show a real spread, and the gap between the top and bottom metro is wide enough to factor into a relocation or job-switch decision. Cincinnati leads the state, helped by its manufacturing base and its position straddling the Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana labor market.

Cincinnati’s median of $82,330 runs $4,150 above Toledo’s $78,180, the widest metro gap in the state for this role. Columbus follows close behind Cincinnati at $80,800, and both top the statewide median of $78,730. Cleveland, Akron, and Toledo all sit within a few hundred dollars of each other and just below the state median, which reflects their older industrial mix and a deeper, more competitive pool of maintenance talent.

Employment concentration is its own signal. Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland together hold 11,140 of Ohio’s 19,410 supervisor jobs, more than half the statewide total, so those three markets carry the most openings and the most room to move between employers without leaving town. That depth matters when you negotiate: in a thick market, walking away from a lowball offer is easier because another employer is hiring down the road. Akron with 1,220 jobs and Toledo with 1,160 are thinner markets, so a supervisor there may have fewer local options, but their pay holds up close to the state median, which makes them attractive when paired with lower housing costs.

The five metros in the table account for 13,520 of the state’s 19,410 jobs. The remaining 5,890 supervisor jobs sit outside the major metros, in smaller cities, county seats, and rural industrial sites across Ohio. Those areas are not broken out individually in the BLS metro data, so use the statewide median of $78,730 as your benchmark if you work outside the five metros above. Pay in those areas often comes in slightly under the metro figures, offset by housing and commuting costs that are lower still.

Take-home pay after taxes in Ohio

Gross salary is the headline. Take-home is what funds your life. Ohio levies a state income tax, but its rates are low and the brackets are gentle for this pay range, so the bite is smaller than in most income-tax states. The table below runs each experience level through federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), and Ohio state tax, based on a single filer with the standard deduction for tax year 2026.

At the Ohio median of $78,730, a single filer keeps about $62,324 a year, or $5,194 a month, after federal, FICA, and state tax. The all-in effective rate at the median is roughly 20.8 percent. Notice how light the state line is: just $1,449 of state tax on a median salary, against $8,935 in federal tax and $6,023 in FICA. Ohio’s state tax is the smallest of the three deductions at every level on this table.

The effective rate climbs gently as pay rises, which is how a progressive system is supposed to work. An entry-level supervisor at $49,040 pays an all-in effective rate of about 16.8 percent and keeps $40,810, roughly $3,401 a month. At the 75th percentile of $97,200, the effective rate reaches about 23.0 percent, leaving $74,810 net, or $6,234 a month. At the senior 90th-percentile salary of $117,120, the rate tops out around 24.7 percent, with $88,147 kept, about $7,346 a month. So even at the top of this role’s range in Ohio, you keep roughly three quarters of every dollar. The step from median to senior nearly adds $25,823 in annual take-home, $62,324 up to $88,147, which is the clearest dollar case for chasing the top of the pay band.

Here is the cross-state comparison that matters most. Take the same $78,730 median and drop it into Texas, a state with no income tax. A Texas supervisor on that salary nets about $63,773, against $62,324 in Ohio. That is a gap of $1,449 a year in Texas’s favor, which is exactly the Ohio state-tax line. Put plainly, the entire cost of Ohio’s income tax on a median salary is $1,449, or about $121 a month. That is real money, but it is far less than the multi-thousand-dollar penalties high-tax states impose, and Ohio’s lower housing costs in most metros can erase the difference several times over.

That last point is the one to hold onto: net pay minus local housing is the number that actually decides how you live. A $1,449 tax edge in a no-tax state means little if rent or a mortgage there costs $400 more a month. Run your own offer through the Ohio paycheck calculator to see your exact net for your filing status and deductions. If you want help squeezing every credit and deduction out of your return, filing with TurboTax can be worth the cost for the deductions it surfaces.

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How to earn more as a mechanics supervisor in Ohio

The pay range in this role is wide, which means the path from the median to the top decile is real and reachable. Here are the concrete moves that push a supervisor up the curve in Ohio specifically:

• Target Cincinnati or Columbus. Both metros pay above the statewide median, $82,330 and $80,800 respectively. A move from a sub-median metro to Cincinnati is worth roughly $3,600 to $4,200 a year at the median level alone.
• Move into a higher-paying industry. Power generation, rail, chemical plants, and aerospace maintenance in Ohio pay supervisors toward the 75th and 90th percentile, $97,200 to $117,120. The same supervisory skills earn more when the equipment is more critical.
• Earn a recognized maintenance credential. Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP), an EPA Section 608 certification for HVAC, or an OSHA 30 safety card all signal you can run a crew to standard. Short technical and leadership courses through Coursera can shore up the project-management and supervision side that employers pay a premium for.
• Take on crew size and shift responsibility. The data shows the median-to-75th-percentile jump is worth $18,470. Volunteering to run a second shift or a larger team is the most direct way to claim it.
• Cross-train into reliability and predictive maintenance. Supervisors who can stand up a preventive-maintenance program and read condition-monitoring data are the ones who reach the top decile of $117,120.
• Negotiate against the metro median, not the state median. If you are in Cincinnati, anchor on $82,330, not $78,730. Walking in with the right local benchmark is the cheapest raise you will ever get.

Job outlook for supervisors in Ohio

Ohio employs 19,410 first-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers, per BLS OEWS 2025, one of the larger state totals in the country thanks to the state’s deep manufacturing, logistics, and utilities base. That employment is spread across Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland as the three biggest hubs, with Akron and Toledo adding steady demand.

This is a role that does not offshore and does not automate away. Someone has to lead the crews that keep plants running, fleets moving, and HVAC and electrical systems working. As experienced supervisors retire, employers compete for the technicians ready to step up, which keeps upward pressure on pay at the top of the range. To see what is open near you and what employers are paying right now, scan current listings on ZipRecruiter.

The supply side reinforces this. The role is a promotion, not an entry point, so its talent pool is fed only by experienced technicians willing to take on scheduling, safety, budgets, and the headaches of managing people. Plenty of skilled mechanics prefer to stay on the tools, which thins the pool of supervisor-ready candidates and hands negotiating power to the ones who step up. With 19,410 of these jobs already in Ohio and a large base of manufacturing, logistics, utilities, and transportation employers behind them, a supervisor who builds a track record of crew uptime and safety has steady bargaining power at the negotiating table here.

Related and higher-paying roles in Ohio

It helps to see this supervisor role against its neighbors in the same Ohio labor market. Using BLS OEWS 2025 medians for the state, here is how two closely related roles stack up against a first-line mechanics supervisor’s $78,730:

Both comparison roles pay less in Ohio than a mechanics supervisor does. A production and operating supervisor earns $72,160, which is $6,570 less than a first-line mechanics supervisor in Ohio. An inspector, tester, and sorter earns $47,360, a full $31,370 less. The takeaway: the maintenance-supervision track pays better than both the production-supervision and quality-inspection tracks in this state, so a lateral move into either would mean a pay cut at the median.

That has a practical read for anyone planning a move. If you are an inspector, tester, or sorter in Ohio earning around $47,360 and you have the technical depth to lead a maintenance crew, stepping up to a mechanics supervisor role is worth $31,370 a year at the median, one of the largest single jumps available within this family of jobs. A production supervisor earning $72,160 who crosses into maintenance supervision picks up $6,570. The links below cover those Ohio role pages in detail, plus the national pillar for this occupation and the same role in five other large states if you are weighing a relocation.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) 2025; federal, FICA, and Ohio state tax estimates for tax year 2026 (single filer, standard deduction). Last updated 2026. See our methodology.