Skilled Trades Compensation: Ohio
Six construction trades in Ohio, May 2025
Ohio's six trades split close to the national benchmark — four price above it, two just below — with equipment operators showing the widest margin at +8.5% — BLS OEWS May 2025 statewide figures with a Columbus metro comparison.
Overview
This profile reports what six core skilled trades — electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, equipment operators, carpenters, HVAC technicians, and line workers — are paid across Ohio, 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. Where BLS has released metro-level profiles for Ohio in this series, Table 3 adds a within-state comparison across those markets.
| Occupation (SOC) | 10th pctile | Median | Mean | 90th pctile | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians (47-2111) | $40,750 | $64,700 | $68,840 | $99,280 | 28,950 |
| Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters (47-2152) | $45,470 | $63,330 | $69,700 | $101,410 | 16,390 |
| Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators (47-2073) | $46,850 | $64,940 | $71,830 | $98,100 | 16,920 |
| Carpenters (47-2031) | $42,290 | $60,810 | $62,590 | $81,140 | 18,450 |
| Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers (49-9021) | $38,630 | $62,510 | $66,000 | $98,310 | 14,150 |
| Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers (49-9051) | $58,840 | $93,150 | $88,330 | $111,760 | 4,260 |
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 — 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 | Ohio | United States | vs. US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians | $64,700 | $63,190 | +2.4% |
| Plumbers & Pipefitters | $63,330 | $63,800 | −0.7% |
| Equipment Operators | $64,940 | $59,850 | +8.5% |
| Carpenters | $60,810 | $60,580 | +0.4% |
| HVAC Technicians | $62,510 | $61,010 | +2.5% |
| Line Workers | $93,150 | $95,320 | −2.3% |
Percentages computed from OEWS medians as shown; positive = state median above the national benchmark. — Sources: BLS
| Metro | Electricians | Plumbers | Operators | Carpenters | HVAC | Line Workers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbus | $64,700 | $63,260 | $78,950 | $66,480 | $64,440 | $81,760 |
Annual medians, US dollars. “—” marks an estimate BLS does not publish for that area — missing values are never shown as zero. — Sources: BLS
What the figures show
Ohio's six trades sit close to the national benchmark on both sides: four price above it, two just below, and none by a wide margin. Equipment operators show the widest gap, +8.5% ($64,940 vs. $59,850 nationally), while carpenters come closest to parity at +0.4%. Within Ohio's one released metro, Columbus operators post a $78,950 median, well above the $64,940 statewide figure. 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 Ohio 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. Smaller cells among the released Ohio metro profiles in Table 3 carry the widest error bands. Union density and prevailing-wage coverage vary across Ohio'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 — 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 2026-09-17T15:00:00Z · Permanent ID WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-TRADES-ST-OH. This record is versioned; the URL is permanent and stable for citation.
Export citation (BibTeX · RIS)
@techreport{WILRB20263COMPTRADESSTOH,
title = {Skilled Trades Compensation: Ohio: Six construction trades in Ohio, May 2025},
author = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
institution = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
type = {WIL Compensation Profiles},
number = {WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-TRADES-ST-OH},
year = {2026},
note = {Version 1.0; methodology WIL-CBM-1.0},
url = {https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/skilled-trades-compensation-ohio},
}RISTY - RPRT AU - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab TI - Skilled Trades Compensation: Ohio: Six construction trades in Ohio, May 2025 PY - 2026 PB - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab M1 - WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-TRADES-ST-OH ET - Version 1.0 UR - https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/skilled-trades-compensation-ohio AB - A public-source compensation profile of six skilled construction trades in Ohio, using BLS OEWS May 2025 wage percentiles benchmarked against the United States, with a comparison to the series' one released Ohio metro, Columbus. The six trades are electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, equipment operators, carpenters, HVAC technicians, and line workers. Ohio prices above the national median in four of six trades, with equipment operators showing the widest gap at +8.5% and carpenters the narrowest at +0.4%. Prepared under methodology WIL-CBM-1.0; this is a public-data profile, not a peer survey. ER -