WIL Compensation Profiles · Research Brief · September 2026

Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Dallas–Fort Worth

A public-source wage profile of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA, May 2025

What construction managers, cost estimators, construction supervisors, and civil engineers earn in the Dallas–Fort Worth 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 Dallas–Fort Worth 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 "Dallas–Fort Worth" here means the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, 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, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA — OEWS May 2025
Occupation (SOC)10th pctileMedianMean90th pctileEmployment
Construction Managers (11-9021)$66,580$103,550$115,370$166,77017,110
Civil Engineers (17-2051)$61,720$96,920$102,080$158,1708,010
First-Line Supervisors, Construction Trades (47-1011)$50,280$76,230$77,110$104,48021,530
Cost Estimators (13-1051)$47,950$79,290$87,120$134,4606,200

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

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, 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 103.5; Civil Engineers 96.9; Cost Estimators 79.3; Constr. Supervisors 76.2, on a 0–110 scale.0285583110Construction Managers103.5Civil Engineers96.9Cost Estimators79.3Constr. Supervisors76.2

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 — Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, 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 — Dallas–Fort Worth MSA vs. Texas and the United States, OEWS May 2025
OccupationDallas–Fort Worth MSATexasUnited Statesvs. USvs. TX
Construction Managers$103,550$101,470$114,990−9.9%+2.0%
Civil Engineers$96,920$96,860$100,840−3.9%+0.1%
First-Line Supervisors$76,230$74,520$79,920−4.6%+2.3%
Cost Estimators$79,290$76,980$78,740+0.7%+3.0%

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

What the figures show

Dallas–Fort Worth carries the largest construction-manager headcount of any market profiled — roughly 17,110 — plus about 21,530 first-line supervisors, at medians below the national figure ($103,550 for construction managers, −9.9%). Civil engineers at $96,920 sit closer to the national median (−3.9%). Within Texas, DFW pays managers +2.0% versus the statewide median. Observed pay positioning only — scale is not evidence of availability.

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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, 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: Dallas–Fort Worth: A public-source wage profile of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA, May 2025 (Publication No. WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-DFW, Version 1.0). WIL Compensation Profiles.

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

Export citation (BibTeX · RIS)
BibTeX
@techreport{WILRB20263COMPDFW,
  title       = {Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Dallas–Fort Worth: A public-source wage profile of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA, May 2025},
  author      = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
  institution = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
  type        = {WIL Compensation Profiles},
  number      = {WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-DFW},
  year        = {2026},
  note        = {Version 1.0; methodology WIL-CBM-1.0},
  url         = {https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/compensation-profile-construction-management-dallas-fort-worth},
}
RIS
TY  - RPRT
AU  - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab
TI  - Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Dallas–Fort Worth: A public-source wage profile of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA, May 2025
PY  - 2026
PB  - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab
M1  - WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-DFW
ET  - Version 1.0
UR  - https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/compensation-profile-construction-management-dallas-fort-worth
AB  - A public-source compensation profile of four construction management and engineering occupations in the Dallas–Fort Worth metro area, using BLS OEWS May 2025 wage percentiles benchmarked against Texas and national levels, with BLS QCEW private construction (NAICS 23) industry context. The largest management headcounts of any market profiled, at medians below the national figure. Prepared under methodology WIL-CBM-1.0; this is a public-data profile, not a peer survey.
ER  -