WIL Compensation Profiles · Research Brief · September 2026

Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Virginia

A public-source statewide wage profile of Virginia, May 2025

What construction managers, cost estimators, construction supervisors, and civil engineers earn across Virginia — BLS OEWS percentiles benchmarked against national levels, with QCEW construction-industry wage context.

Overview

This profile reports what four core construction management and engineering occupations are paid across Virginia, using the most recent federal occupational wage statistics. All figures are statewide annual wages in US dollars from the OEWS May 2025 reference period; statewide figures average across the state's metro and non-metro labor markets. 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, Virginia — OEWS May 2025
Occupation (SOC)10th pctileMedianMean90th pctileEmployment
Construction Managers (11-9021)$79,940$119,110$127,200$183,9807,290
Civil Engineers (17-2051)$74,000$97,120$105,340$150,71011,350
First-Line Supervisors, Construction Trades (47-1011)$54,340$78,640$81,790$117,50024,970
Cost Estimators (13-1051)$49,820$80,530$86,110$129,3305,840

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

Virginia · 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: Constr. Managers 119.1; Civil Engineers 97.1; Cost Estimators 80.5; Constr. Supervisors 78.6, on a 0–120 scale.0306090120Constr. Managers119.1Civil Engineers97.1Cost Estimators80.5Constr. Supervisors78.6

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 — Virginia; 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 — Virginia vs. the United States, with national rank, OEWS May 2025
OccupationVirginiaUnited Statesvs. USRank (of 49)
Construction Managers$119,110$114,990+3.6%15th
Civil Engineers$97,120$100,840−3.7%33rd
First-Line Supervisors$78,640$79,920−1.6%25th
Cost Estimators$80,530$78,740+2.3%15th

Percentages computed from OEWS medians as shown. Rank is the state's position among the 48 continental states and the District of Columbia (1 = highest median). — Sources: BLS

What the figures show

Among the 48 continental states and the District of Columbia, Virginia ranks 15th of 49 for construction-manager median pay ($119,110), 33rd for civil engineers ($97,120), 25th for construction supervisors ($78,640), and 15th for cost estimators ($80,530). 2 of the four occupational medians stand at or above the national median. civil engineers ($97,120) price below the national median; construction supervisors ($78,640) price below the national median. Industry-wide, Virginia's private construction average weekly wage moved from $1,450 to $1,529 between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025 (+5.4%), with employment at 232,357 (+5.1% year over year). These are observed pay comparisons only; nothing here measures how hard these roles are to fill.

Table 3. Industry context — Virginia private construction (NAICS 23), QCEW
QuarterAvg weekly wageEmploymentEstablishments
2024 Q3$1,450221,17422,986
2025 Q3$1,529232,35722,672

Statewide, all occupations within private NAICS 23 — broader than the four profiled occupations. Year over year: average weekly wage +5.4%; employment +5.1%. Quarterly wages are not seasonally adjusted. — 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 Virginia and the United States, read from the Lab's governed warehouse (BLS_OEWS ingest, June 2026); industry context is BLS QCEW, private ownership, NAICS 23 (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 statewide level; metro- or employer-level variation within the state is not shown here. OEWS wages are modeled estimates with published relative standard errors; QCEW quarterly wages are not seasonally adjusted. Suppressed or unavailable cells are shown as missing — never zero. This profile asserts pay positioning only — not workforce availability, not hiring conditions.

State workforce context — Virginia

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

Workforce exposure
Moderate
Exposure movement
accelerating
Wage position
in line with national medians
Federal-award momentum
Elevated · 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: Virginia: A public-source statewide wage profile of Virginia, May 2025 (Publication No. WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-ST-VA, Version 1.0). WIL Compensation Profiles.

Version 1.0 · Published 2026-09-22T13:00:00Z · Permanent ID WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-ST-VA. This record is versioned; the URL is permanent and stable for citation.

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BibTeX
@techreport{WILRB20263COMPSTVA,
  title       = {Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Virginia: A public-source statewide wage profile of Virginia, May 2025},
  author      = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
  institution = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
  type        = {WIL Compensation Profiles},
  number      = {WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-ST-VA},
  year        = {2026},
  note        = {Version 1.0; methodology WIL-CBM-1.0},
  url         = {https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/compensation-profile-construction-management-virginia},
}
RIS
TY  - RPRT
AU  - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab
TI  - Construction Management and Engineering Compensation: Virginia: A public-source statewide wage profile of Virginia, May 2025
PY  - 2026
PB  - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab
M1  - WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-ST-VA
ET  - Version 1.0
UR  - https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/compensation-profile-construction-management-virginia
AB  - A public-source compensation profile of four construction management and engineering occupations in Virginia, using BLS OEWS May 2025 wage percentiles benchmarked against national levels, with BLS QCEW private construction (NAICS 23) industry context. The state ranks 15th of 49 for construction managers median pay. Prepared under methodology WIL-CBM-1.0; this is a public-data profile, not a peer survey.
ER  -