Research · Updated May 2026
What the skilled trades earn — and where the jobs are going
A benchmark of pay and job outlook across 14 U.S. skilled trades, built from Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Wages are May 2025; employment growth and annual openings are the BLS 2024–2034 projections. Below the data, what the numbers actually mean if you run the business rather than work for one.
Executive summary
- Across the trades benchmarked, median pay runs roughly $39,000–$64,000. Plumbers ($63,800) and electricians ($63,190) sit at the top; grounds/landscaping (~$39,150) and pest control sit at the bottom.
- The highest-paid trades aren't the fastest-growing. Solar PV installers are projected to grow +42% through 2034 and electricians +9%, while higher-paid plumbing and drywall grow at the ~4% national average.
- The pay range within a trade is enormous — top-decile electricians earn more than 2.5× the bottom decile. Experience, specialty, region, and whether you own the business drive most of that spread.
- BLS wage data excludes the self-employed. If you own the business, these medians are the floor you're trying to beat — not your ceiling.
Wages and outlook by trade
| Trade | Median pay (2025) | Growth ’24–’34 | Annual openings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers, pipefitters & steamfitters | $63,800 | +4% | 44,000 |
| Electricians | $63,190 | +9% | 81,000 |
| Brickmasons & blockmasons | $62,120 | —† | ~20,700† |
| Sheet metal workers | $61,800 | +2% | 10,600 |
| HVAC mechanics & installers | $61,010 | +8% | 40,100 |
| Carpenters | $60,580 | +4% | 74,100 |
| Drywall & ceiling tile installers | $58,930 | +4% | 8,800 |
| Flooring installers & tile/stone setters | $55,690 | +6% | 8,400 |
| Roofers | $55,440 | +6% | 12,700 |
| Solar photovoltaic installers | $53,140 | +42% | 4,100 |
| Painters (construction & maintenance) | $49,400 | +4% | 28,100 |
| Construction laborers & helpers | $47,120 | +7% | —‡ |
| Pest control workers | $45,250 | +5% | 13,400 |
| Grounds maintenance (landscaping/lawn) | $39,150 | +4% | 171,600 |
Median pay is BLS OEWS, May 2025 (extracted via the BLS public API); projected growth and average annual openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections.
†Brickmasons & blockmasons median shown; growth/openings are for the broader masonry-workers group (incl. stonemasons), ~294,300 employed.
‡BLS does not isolate annual openings for construction laborers; the broader construction & extraction occupation group is projected ~649,300 openings/year. Employment (2024), where reported: carpenters ~949,000; electricians 818,700; plumbers 504,500; HVAC 425,200; solar 28,600.
The pay range is huge — averages hide it
A single median number hides how wide the spread is inside every trade. BLS reports the 10th and 90th percentiles too, and the gap is striking: a top-decile electrician earns more than 2.5× a bottom-decile one. Where you land in that range comes down to experience, license level, specialty, region, union status, and — biggest of all for the people this site is built for — whether you're an employee or the owner.
| Trade | Bottom 10% | Median | Top 10% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians | < $42,640 | $63,190 | > $108,510 |
| Plumbers, pipefitters & steamfitters | < $44,150 | $63,800 | > $108,420 |
| HVAC mechanics & installers | < $40,050 | $61,010 | > $95,210 |
| Painters (construction & maintenance) | < $37,440 | $49,400 | > $78,810 |
Fastest-growing vs. highest-paid
Pay and growth pull in different directions. The best-paid trades — plumbing, drywall finishing, sheet metal — are mature and projected to grow at or below the ~4% national average (sheet metal just +2%). The fastest-growing are riding structural shifts: solar PV installers (+42%) on the clean-energy build-out, and electricians (+9%) and HVAC techs (+8%) on electrification, data centers, and ever-more-complex climate systems. Electrical work is the rare trade that pays near the top and grows well above average — a big part of why it's one of the most attractive trades to enter or build a business around today.
Raw opening counts tell another story. Grounds maintenance shows ~171,600 openings a year — but that reflects a very large, high-turnover workforce, not high pay. Electricians (81,000) and carpenters (74,100) combine strong opening volume with solid pay, signaling durable demand for skilled hands.
Where you work changes what you earn
Geography moves these numbers a lot. For electricians, states such as Oregon, Illinois, and Hawaii lead with median wages around $96,000–$101,000 — well above the national median — while lower-cost Southern states sit closer to $50,000. The same trade can pay roughly twice as much depending on the market. For an owner, that's really a statement about local pricing power: high-wage metros support higher billing rates. See the full electrician salary by state for every state.
The number that matters most isn't here
One critical caveat runs through this entire dataset: BLS wage figures cover employees, not the self-employed. The OEWS survey doesn't collect owner pay. So for the millions of tradespeople who run their own one-person business (see our solo-contractor report), these medians describe what you'd make working for someone else — the bar your own business should clear.
Whether you clear it depends entirely on what you charge and how many hours you actually bill — and most owners undercharge because they price off their old employee wage. Work out the rate you truly need with our free hourly rate calculator, and price individual jobs with the markup vs. margin calculator.
Methodology & sources
Median annual wages and percentiles are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program, May 2025, extracted via the BLS public API; projected growth and average annual openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections (Occupational Outlook Handbook). Some trades are reported by BLS as groups rather than single occupations (noted in the table footnotes). BLS wage data excludes self-employed workers. For per-state figures, see our salary by state pages.
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