Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Columbus
A public-source wage profile of the Columbus, OH MSA, May 2025
What construction managers, cost estimators, construction supervisors, and civil engineers earn in the Columbus 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 Columbus 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 "Columbus" here means the Columbus, OH 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.
| Occupation (SOC) | 10th pctile | Median | Mean | 90th pctile | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction Managers (11-9021) | $74,800 | $105,200 | $116,170 | $165,770 | 4,000 |
| Civil Engineers (17-2051) | $68,340 | $99,010 | $106,670 | $169,390 | 2,630 |
| First-Line Supervisors, Construction Trades (47-1011) | $61,010 | $82,360 | $85,630 | $113,610 | 5,420 |
| Cost Estimators (13-1051) | $49,440 | $79,990 | $87,280 | $128,020 | 1,570 |
Annual wages, US dollars. Employment is OEWS-estimated occupational employment in the MSA. — Sources: BLS
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 — Columbus, OH MSA; Ohio; 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.
| Occupation | Columbus MSA | Ohio | United States | vs. US | vs. OH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction Managers | $105,200 | $101,980 | $114,990 | −8.5% | +3.2% |
| Civil Engineers | $99,010 | $96,220 | $100,840 | −1.8% | +2.9% |
| First-Line Supervisors | $82,360 | $79,580 | $79,920 | +3.1% | +3.5% |
| Cost Estimators | $79,990 | $77,730 | $78,740 | +1.6% | +2.9% |
Percentages computed from OEWS medians as shown; positive = metro median above the benchmark. — Sources: BLS
What the figures show
Columbus is a balanced market: construction managers at $105,200 (−8.5% vs. the national median, +3.2% vs. Ohio statewide), civil engineers at $99,010 (−1.8%), and — unusually — first-line supervisors above their national benchmark at $82,360 (+3.1%), on the highest supervisor floor in this release ($61,010). Observed pay comparisons only; nothing here measures labor availability.
| Quarter | Avg weekly wage | Employment | Establishments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q3 | $1,862 | 260,433 | 26,206 |
| 2024 Q4 | $2,064 | 256,772 | 26,439 |
| 2025 Q1 | $1,814 | 239,765 | 26,086 |
| 2025 Q2 | $1,835 | 262,237 | 26,211 |
| 2025 Q3 | $1,983 | 269,702 | 26,274 |
Statewide, all occupations within private NAICS 23 — broader than the four profiled occupations. Year over year (Q3 2024 → Q3 2025): average weekly wage +6.5%; employment +3.6%; establishments +0.3%. 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 Columbus, OH MSA, Ohio, 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 — Ohio
A live public-signal read for Ohio from the Lab's standing trackers — banded and directional, refreshed independently of this brief.
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.
Version 1.0 · Published 2026-09-08 · Permanent ID WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-CMH. This record is versioned; the URL is permanent and stable for citation.
Export citation (BibTeX · RIS)
@techreport{WILRB20263COMPCMH,
title = {Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Columbus: A public-source wage profile of the Columbus, OH MSA, May 2025},
author = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
institution = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
type = {WIL Compensation Profiles},
number = {WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-CMH},
year = {2026},
note = {Version 1.0; methodology WIL-CBM-1.0},
url = {https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/compensation-profile-construction-management-columbus},
}RISTY - RPRT AU - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab TI - Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Columbus: A public-source wage profile of the Columbus, OH MSA, May 2025 PY - 2026 PB - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab M1 - WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-CMH ET - Version 1.0 UR - https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/compensation-profile-construction-management-columbus AB - A public-source compensation profile of four construction management and engineering occupations in the Columbus metro area, using BLS OEWS May 2025 wage percentiles benchmarked against Ohio and national levels, with BLS QCEW private construction (NAICS 23) industry context. A balanced Midwest market where first-line supervisors beat their national benchmark. Prepared under methodology WIL-CBM-1.0; this is a public-data profile, not a peer survey. ER -