Compactor Shop Welder (Electrical or Hydraulics Required)
Location
Chicago, IL
Wage
$35 – $41.5/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on September 21, 2026
Location
Chicago, IL
Wage
$35 – $41.5/hr
Employment Type
Full-time
Posted on September 21, 2026
The Compactor Shop Welder at Republic Services is responsible for repairing, painting, and maintaining containers and roll-off boxes, utilizing various welding and fabrication techniques. Republic Services is a leader in the environmental services industry, providing comprehensive waste management solutions.
At roughly $38/hr, this posting lands within a few percent of the $37/hr median for welding jobs in Chicago, IL, whose middle half runs $31–$47/hr across 76 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 55% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. In other words it is a market-rate offer, so benefits, overtime, and shift schedule are where the real difference between this and the next posting on the list shows up.
We're tracking 96 other active welding openings in Chicago, IL right now, from 55 different employers. 31 of them were added in the last week. Across Illinois as a whole we're tracking 333 other active welding openings from 207 employers. A metro this active generally means you have real leverage — employers here are competing for the same welders. Browse every welding job in Chicago, or widen the search to Illinois.
Republic Services currently has 3 other openings live in Illinois, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.
The most active employers in Illinois at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are Staff on Site (13), S&C Electric Company (10), and Gerber Collision & Glass (10). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.
Within Illinois, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Chicago at $37/hr, Elk Grove Village at $36/hr, and Bedford Park at $33/hr. Chicago is among them.
This posting calls for MIG and Stick work. MIG (GMAW) feeds a continuous wire electrode through a shielding-gas nozzle. It lays down metal fast and is forgiving on clean material, which is why it dominates production and light fabrication work. Stick (SMAW) burns a flux-coated consumable rod and needs no shielding gas, so it works in wind, rain, and on dirty or rusted steel. That tolerance for bad conditions keeps it the default for field, structural, and repair work.
Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Compactor Shop Welder (Electrical or Hydraulics Required) figures were last recalculated when this page was built.