WIL Compensation Profiles · Research Brief · September 2026

Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Austin

A public-source wage profile of the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA, May 2025

What construction managers, cost estimators, construction supervisors, and civil engineers earn in the Austin metro area — BLS OEWS percentiles benchmarked against state and national levels, with QCEW construction-industry wage context.

Overview

This profile reports what four core construction management and engineering occupations are paid in the Austin metropolitan area, using the most recent federal occupational wage statistics. A geographic note first: BLS publishes occupational wages at the metropolitan-statistical-area level, so "Austin" here means the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA — not any single city government's boundaries. All figures are annual wages in US dollars from the OEWS May 2025 reference period. The profile is produced under the Lab's public-source compensation benchmarking method (WIL-CBM-1.0): it is a public-data profile, not a peer survey, and it describes pay positioning only — it makes no claim about labor availability or hiring conditions.

Table 1. Annual wage distribution, Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA — OEWS May 2025
Occupation (SOC)10th pctileMedianMean90th pctileEmployment
Construction Managers (11-9021)$69,740$102,980$116,740$169,1106,040
Civil Engineers (17-2051)$65,380$100,470$106,510$162,7704,940
First-Line Supervisors, Construction Trades (47-1011)$50,960$77,800$78,510$105,0308,010
Cost Estimators (13-1051)$48,670$78,650$87,400$134,2301,990

Annual wages, US dollars. Employment is OEWS-estimated occupational employment in the MSA. — Sources: BLS

Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA · OEWS May 2025
Median annual wage by occupation
US dollars, thousands. Public-source federal statistics — pay positioning, not an availability measure.
Median annual wage by occupationBar chart: Construction Managers 103; Civil Engineers 100.5; Cost Estimators 78.7; Constr. Supervisors 77.8, on a 0–110 scale.0285583110Construction Managers103Civil Engineers100.5Cost Estimators78.7Constr. Supervisors77.8

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 — Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA; Texas; United States · Methodology WIL-CBM-1.0 · Public-source federal statistics. Annual wages in US dollars; OEWS estimates are modeled from employer surveys and carry published relative standard errors.

Table 2. Median annual wage — Austin MSA vs. Texas and the United States, OEWS May 2025
OccupationAustin MSATexasUnited Statesvs. USvs. TX
Construction Managers$102,980$101,470$114,990−10.4%+1.5%
Civil Engineers$100,470$96,860$100,840−0.4%+3.7%
First-Line Supervisors$77,800$74,520$79,920−2.7%+4.4%
Cost Estimators$78,650$76,980$78,740−0.1%+2.2%

Percentages computed from OEWS medians as shown; positive = metro median above the benchmark. — Sources: BLS

What the figures show

Austin's civil engineers earn a $100,470 median — essentially the national level (−0.4%) — while construction managers at $102,980 sit −10.4% against it, a mirror image of the Phoenix pattern. First-line supervisors at $77,800 run +4.4% ahead of the Texas statewide median while staying −2.7% against the national figure. Within Texas, Austin managers earn +1.5% versus the statewide median. Observed comparisons only.

Table 3. Industry context — Texas private construction (NAICS 23), QCEW quarterly
QuarterAvg weekly wageEmploymentEstablishments
2024 Q3$1,782862,60264,538
2024 Q4$2,084878,35464,270
2025 Q1$1,997879,80964,770
2025 Q2$1,855903,13065,114
2025 Q3$1,847906,99965,303

Statewide, all occupations within private NAICS 23 — broader than the four profiled occupations. Year over year (Q3 2024 → Q3 2025): average weekly wage +3.6%; employment +5.1%; establishments +1.2%. Quarterly wage figures are not seasonally adjusted (Q4 typically carries year-end pay). — Sources: BLS

Method and limitations

Prepared under WIL-CBM-1.0 (Public-Source Compensation Benchmarking: A Method Note, WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-METHOD). Wage figures are BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates for the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA, Texas, and the United States, read from the Lab's governed warehouse (BLS_OEWS ingest, September 2026); industry context is BLS QCEW, private ownership, NAICS 23, through Q3 2025 (BLS_QCEW ingest, June 2026). Limitations: this is a public-data profile, not a peer survey — no employer-specific comparators were collected, so it does not substitute for a WIL-CBM-1.0 peer study where employer-level matching is required. Coverage is four occupations at the MSA level; city- or employer-level variation within the MSA is not observable in OEWS. OEWS wages are modeled estimates with published relative standard errors (roughly 1–3 percent for these cells); QCEW quarterly wages are not seasonally adjusted. No suppressed cell is printed as a value; any suppressed or missing cell is shown as missing, never zero. This profile asserts pay positioning only — not workforce availability, not hiring conditions.

State workforce context — Texas

A live public-signal read for Texas from the Lab's standing trackers — banded and directional, refreshed independently of this brief.

Workforce exposure
Elevated
Exposure movement
accelerating
Wage position
modestly below national medians
Federal-award momentum
High · softening

Source: Workforce Exposure Index and federal-award momentum — public_reports (banded). Directional, banded read — not a forecast. Methodology v2 · last updated 2026-05-26. See Live metrics for the full charts.

Suggested citationAlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab. (2026). Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Austin: A public-source wage profile of the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA, May 2025 (Publication No. WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-AUS, Version 1.0). WIL Compensation Profiles.

Version 1.0 · Published 2026-09-08 · Permanent ID WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-AUS. This record is versioned; the URL is permanent and stable for citation.

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BibTeX
@techreport{WILRB20263COMPAUS,
  title       = {Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Austin: A public-source wage profile of the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA, May 2025},
  author      = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
  institution = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
  type        = {WIL Compensation Profiles},
  number      = {WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-AUS},
  year        = {2026},
  note        = {Version 1.0; methodology WIL-CBM-1.0},
  url         = {https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/compensation-profile-construction-management-austin},
}
RIS
TY  - RPRT
AU  - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab
TI  - Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Austin: A public-source wage profile of the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX MSA, May 2025
PY  - 2026
PB  - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab
M1  - WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-AUS
ET  - Version 1.0
UR  - https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/compensation-profile-construction-management-austin
AB  - A public-source compensation profile of four construction management and engineering occupations in the Austin metro area, using BLS OEWS May 2025 wage percentiles benchmarked against Texas and national levels, with BLS QCEW private construction (NAICS 23) industry context. Engineering at par with the nation while management sits below it. Prepared under methodology WIL-CBM-1.0; this is a public-data profile, not a peer survey.
ER  -