Skilled Trades Compensation: Kentucky
Six construction trades in Kentucky, May 2025
Kentucky prices above the national median in one of the six trades profiled here, with line workers showing the widest gap at −19.2% — BLS OEWS May 2025 statewide figures benchmarked against the national median.
Overview
This profile reports what six core skilled trades — electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, equipment operators, carpenters, HVAC technicians, and line workers — are paid across Kentucky, using the most recent federal occupational wage statistics. All figures are statewide annual wages in US dollars from the OEWS May 2025 reference period; BLS publishes these as statewide estimates that average across a state's metropolitan and non-metropolitan labor markets alike. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians (47-2111) | $37,110 | $59,720 | $61,410 | $85,260 | 11,030 |
| Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters (47-2152) | $44,860 | $64,160 | $68,870 | $94,710 | 6,360 |
| Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators (47-2073) | $44,620 | $57,780 | $59,320 | $80,890 | 7,050 |
| Carpenters (47-2031) | $36,760 | $52,680 | $54,820 | $72,960 | 8,540 |
| Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers (49-9021) | $38,790 | $58,620 | $58,870 | $80,020 | 5,100 |
| Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers (49-9051) | $47,770 | $77,020 | $75,710 | $102,400 | 2,930 |
Annual wages, US dollars. Employment is OEWS-estimated statewide occupational employment. — Sources: BLS
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 — Kentucky; 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 | Kentucky | United States | vs. US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians | $59,720 | $63,190 | −5.5% |
| Plumbers & Pipefitters | $64,160 | $63,800 | +0.6% |
| Equipment Operators | $57,780 | $59,850 | −3.5% |
| Carpenters | $52,680 | $60,580 | −13.0% |
| HVAC Technicians | $58,620 | $61,010 | −3.9% |
| Line Workers | $77,020 | $95,320 | −19.2% |
Percentages computed from OEWS medians as shown; positive = state median above the national benchmark. — Sources: BLS
What the figures show
Kentucky clears the national median in only one of the six trades profiled here. Line workers show the widest gap to the national median, −19.2% ($77,020 vs. $95,320 nationally), while plumbers and pipefitters come closest to parity at +0.6%. In dollar terms, no trade profiled here in Kentucky pays more than line workers, at $77,020 — still 19.2% below the national line-worker median. These are observed wage comparisons only; nothing here measures how hard these trades are to hire.
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 Kentucky and the United States, read from the Lab's governed warehouse (BLS_OEWS ingest, September 2026). Statewide estimates average across the state's metro and non-metro labor markets; OEWS wages are modeled estimates with published relative standard errors, wider in the smallest-employment cells. Union density and prevailing-wage coverage vary across Kentucky's labor markets and may contribute to the gaps shown here, but OEWS does not identify bargaining status, so that attribution is left as context, not a finding. 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 — Kentucky
A live public-signal read for Kentucky 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 2026-10-19T15:00:00Z · Permanent ID WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-TRADES-ST-KY. This record is versioned; the URL is permanent and stable for citation.
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@techreport{WILRB20263COMPTRADESSTKY,
title = {Skilled Trades Compensation: Kentucky: Six construction trades in Kentucky, May 2025},
author = {Workforce Intelligence Lab},
institution = {Workforce Intelligence Lab},
type = {WIL Compensation Profiles},
number = {WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-TRADES-ST-KY},
year = {2026},
note = {Version 1.0; methodology WIL-CBM-1.0},
url = {https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/skilled-trades-compensation-kentucky},
}RISTY - RPRT AU - Workforce Intelligence Lab TI - Skilled Trades Compensation: Kentucky: Six construction trades in Kentucky, May 2025 PY - 2026 PB - Workforce Intelligence Lab M1 - WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-TRADES-ST-KY ET - Version 1.0 UR - https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/skilled-trades-compensation-kentucky AB - A public-source compensation profile of six skilled construction trades in Kentucky, using BLS OEWS May 2025 wage percentiles benchmarked against the United States. The six trades are electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, equipment operators, carpenters, HVAC technicians, and line workers. Kentucky prices above the national median in one of the six, with line workers showing the widest gap at −19.2% and plumbers and pipefitters the narrowest premium at +0.6%. Prepared under methodology WIL-CBM-1.0; this is a public-data profile, not a peer survey. ER -