"We have a booming economy, we're seven years into the expansion and truck drivers are the front line," says Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor.
Pay for truckers varies by distance and employer. Glassdoor estimates median pay for truckers drivers -- mostly long haul drivers -- is $54,000. The American Trucking Association says that truckers who work for a private fleet can earn up to $73,000 a year.
The pay is well ahead of other blue collar positions like machine operators ($36,800), construction workers ($36,600) and maintenance workers ($41,179), according to Glassdoor.
Truck drivers have defied the overall trends in the U.S. economy, where wages have grown at a snail's pace since the end of the Great Recession.
There's been a major shortage of truck drivers, who typically require a commercial drivers license. The ATA estimates there's a growing shortage of nearly 50,000 drivers in America. In 2013, the shortage was only 30,000 drivers.
Another reason truckers' wages are going up: it's not a job that a machine can replace yet. And there's a ton of goods that need to be transported, given that the economy has been growing for seven years now, argues Chamberlain.
