Skilled Trades Compensation Across the Profiled Metros
Six construction trades in the series' twenty-two markets, May 2025
Electricians, plumbers, equipment operators, carpenters, HVAC technicians, and line workers across the series' twenty-two profiled metros — BLS OEWS May 2025 medians and distributions with national benchmarks.
Overview
This brief extends the WIL Compensation Profiles series below the management layer: what six core skilled trades are paid across the twenty-two metropolitan markets the series has profiled to date. All figures are annual wages in US dollars from the BLS OEWS May 2025 reference period, read at the metropolitan-statistical-area level. The brief 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, apprenticeship pipelines, or hiring conditions.
| Occupation (SOC) | 10th pctile | Median | Mean | 90th pctile | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians (47-2111) | $42,640 | $63,190 | $71,490 | $108,510 | 757,220 |
| Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters (47-2152) | $44,150 | $63,800 | $72,170 | $108,420 | 465,840 |
| Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators (47-2073) | $42,190 | $59,850 | $66,290 | $101,090 | 478,090 |
| Carpenters (47-2031) | $40,410 | $60,580 | $65,630 | $99,910 | 670,090 |
| Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers (49-9021) | $40,050 | $61,010 | $64,780 | $95,210 | 409,670 |
| Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers (49-9051) | $51,470 | $95,320 | $91,970 | $128,690 | 131,070 |
Annual wages, US dollars. Employment is OEWS-estimated national occupational employment. — Sources: BLS
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 — 22 profiled MSAs; 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.
| Metro | Electricians | Plumbers | Operators | Carpenters | HVAC | Line Workers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $92,830 | $77,880 | $124,750 | $89,200 | $78,490 | $137,180 |
| San Jose | $91,030 | $107,560 | $124,340 | $80,190 | $82,050 | $157,620 |
| San Diego | $76,160 | $72,510 | $83,670 | $73,200 | $74,880 | $120,870 |
| Bakersfield | $75,860 | $66,450 | $77,960 | $66,540 | $66,400 | $126,670 |
| Sacramento | $74,830 | $65,210 | $91,650 | $74,440 | $66,670 | $127,160 |
| Los Angeles | $73,810 | $71,110 | $92,890 | $75,740 | $73,830 | $130,440 |
| Riverside–S.B. | $72,790 | $63,920 | $78,720 | $70,880 | $64,300 | $128,750 |
| Fresno | $71,710 | $64,400 | $78,310 | $63,470 | $62,580 | $134,150 |
| Las Vegas | $70,890 | $59,700 | $63,910 | $62,380 | $60,240 | $96,890 |
| Columbus | $64,700 | $63,260 | $78,950 | $66,480 | $64,440 | $81,760 |
| Nashville | $63,340 | $60,100 | $56,030 | $55,770 | $60,270 | $83,230 |
| Phoenix | $61,210 | $63,750 | $62,540 | $60,320 | $61,170 | $75,420 |
| Memphis | $60,890 | $58,690 | $53,870 | $50,620 | $56,780 | $97,150 |
| Austin | $60,390 | $62,810 | $50,960 | $50,260 | $60,820 | $82,120 |
| Houston | $59,180 | $61,300 | $51,040 | $49,670 | $58,940 | $82,710 |
| Charlotte | $59,080 | $58,690 | $50,870 | $50,960 | $59,840 | $81,740 |
| Dallas–Fort Worth | $59,010 | $61,250 | $51,370 | $48,740 | $59,560 | $77,910 |
| Atlanta | $58,650 | $58,380 | $49,430 | $50,680 | $58,970 | $83,570 |
| Savannah | $58,430 | $60,530 | $48,810 | $44,900 | $51,770 | — |
| San Antonio | $57,010 | $58,180 | $48,750 | $48,900 | $58,590 | $78,030 |
| Raleigh | $56,800 | $60,540 | $51,110 | $50,820 | $58,900 | $78,930 |
| College Station–Bryan | $48,410 | $49,780 | $47,980 | $46,970 | $48,530 | $81,390 |
Annual medians, US dollars. “—” marks an estimate BLS does not publish for that area (Savannah line workers) — missing values are never shown as zero. National medians for comparison: electricians $63,190; plumbers $63,800; operators $59,850; carpenters $60,580; HVAC $61,010; line workers $95,320. — Sources: BLS
What the figures show
Three patterns organize the table. First, line workers are the best-paid trade in every market where BLS publishes an estimate — a $95,320 national median against $59,850–$63,800 for the other five — and the premium widens in California: San Jose line workers post a $157,620 median, San Francisco $137,180, and even Fresno $134,150 on roughly 230 jobs. Second, California is expensive across all six trades, most strikingly for equipment operators: $124,750 in San Francisco and $124,340 in San Jose against a $59,850 national median — more than double — with Sacramento ($91,650) and Los Angeles ($92,890) also far above every non-California market. Third, the large Texas and Southeast markets cluster below the national medians: Dallas–Fort Worth carpenters at $48,740 sit 19.5% under the national figure, and College Station–Bryan and Savannah post the lowest medians in the table. Columbus is the Midwest exception — equipment operators at $78,950 run 31.9% above the national median. These are observed wage comparisons from federal statistics; 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). All figures are BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates read from the Lab's governed warehouse (BLS_OEWS ingest, September 2026). Trade coverage is the six occupations shown; geography coverage is the twenty-two MSAs with released WIL Compensation Profiles, plus national benchmarks. BLS does not publish a line-worker estimate for the Savannah MSA; that cell is shown as missing, never zero, and no other cell used here was suppressed. OEWS wages are modeled estimates with published relative standard errors — wider in the smallest-area cells (College Station–Bryan, Savannah, and the smaller line-worker cells). Union density and prevailing-wage coverage differ sharply across these markets and likely explain much of the California premium, but OEWS does not identify bargaining status, so that attribution is left as context, not a finding. This brief asserts pay positioning only — not workforce availability, not hiring conditions.
Version 1.0 · Published 2026-09-08 · Permanent ID WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-TRADES. This record is versioned; the URL is permanent and stable for citation.
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@techreport{WILRB20263COMPTRADES,
title = {Skilled Trades Compensation Across the Profiled Metros: Six construction trades in the series' twenty-two markets, May 2025},
author = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
institution = {AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab},
type = {WIL Compensation Profiles},
number = {WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-TRADES},
year = {2026},
note = {Version 1.0; methodology WIL-CBM-1.0},
url = {https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/skilled-trades-compensation-profiled-metros},
}RISTY - RPRT AU - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab TI - Skilled Trades Compensation Across the Profiled Metros: Six construction trades in the series' twenty-two markets, May 2025 PY - 2026 PB - AlphaHire Workforce Intelligence Lab M1 - WIL-RB-2026.3-COMP-TRADES ET - Version 1.0 UR - https://wilinstitute.org/library/p/skilled-trades-compensation-profiled-metros AB - What six core skilled trades — electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, equipment operators, carpenters, HVAC technicians, and line workers — are paid across the twenty-two metros profiled in the WIL Compensation Profiles series, using BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates with national benchmarks. Line workers lead every market; California operators earn more than double the national median; the large Texas and Southeast markets cluster below it. Prepared under methodology WIL-CBM-1.0; this is a public-data profile, not a peer survey. ER -