Table of Contents

Data compiled May 2026 using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2025 release, published May 15, 2026, supplemented by BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) data through Q4 2025 and BLS Employment Cost Index (ECI) data through Q1 2026. Wage figures reflect the May 2025 OEWS reference period unless otherwise noted.

---

Executive Summary

$59,550/year Median annual wage for construction and extraction occupations nationally (May 2025, OEWS) — a 2.0% gain from May 2024, with growth concentrated in management and select non-electrical trades rather than spread evenly across the workforce

$71,670/year Median annual wage for construction and extraction occupations in California — a 20.4% premium over the national figure, with substantial metro-by-metro variation inside the state

$114,980/year Median annual wage for construction managers nationally — up 7.5% year-over-year, more than triple the aggregate construction wage gain and the strongest YoY growth among management and professional roles tracked

The U.S. construction wage landscape in 2026 reflects a workforce that absorbed sharp wage gains in 2022 to 2024 and is now stabilizing at the new higher level for licensed trades, while management compensation continues to climb. The May 2025 OEWS release, published May 15, 2026, captures a labor market where the aggregate construction and extraction median grew 2.0% year-over-year, but the headline number conceals a sharp bifurcation between management roles (construction managers up 7.5%) and core licensed trades (electricians up 1.3%, plumbers up 1.3%, ironworkers up 0.1%).

The data tells a clear story about where employers are paying up. Construction managers earned $114,980 at the national median, with growth that more than tripled the aggregate construction wage gain. Roofers ($55,430, up 8.8%), tile and stone setters ($55,680, up 6.6%), and cement masons ($57,010, up 4.3%) led trade-level gains, while the most prominent licensed trades stabilized after several years of acceleration. The data center demand narrative that has dominated industry coverage shows up in employment projections and survey-reported hiring difficulty, but it has not yet translated into above-average wage growth for median electricians in the May 2025 OEWS data.

Geographic variation continues to define the construction wage market. California construction medians sit 20.4% above national, and within California, Southern California metros arrange themselves in a clean coastal-to-inland gradient: LA Metro $69,610, San Diego $67,580, Oxnard $64,660, Inland Empire $63,030. The premium varies by occupation type. Skilled trades are deeply local with $11,000 to $15,000 metro-to-metro variation, heavy equipment operators carry a distinctive LA-specific premium, and engineering and management roles operate as a near-statewide labor market.

Total compensation in construction averaged $50.93 per hour worked in Q4 2025, with benefits representing 30.3% of the total, above the private-industry average and reflecting the comparatively rich benefits packages associated with unionized trades.

For construction leaders, the 2026 wage data confirms that pay competition is no longer evenly distributed across the workforce. Wage strategy in 2026 means treating each role as its own labor market, and recognizing that the most aggressive pay competition has shifted from skilled trades to credentialed project managers and from medians to the upper percentiles of licensed-trade distributions.

Wage data tells you what to pay. It doesn’t tell you where the candidates are. When you’re ready to move from benchmarking to hiring, find construction talent with Amtec’s recruiters. We source skilled trades, supervisors, project managers, and engineering staff for construction firms across the markets this report covers.

---

---

Key Construction Wage Benchmarks at a Glance (2026)

National wage context (May 2025, OEWS)

• All-occupations median annual wage: $50,980
• Construction and extraction median annual wage: $59,550
• Construction and extraction median hourly wage: $28.63

Skilled trades — median annual wages

• Elevator installers and repairers: $109,910 (+3.1% YoY)
• Plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters: $63,790 (+1.3% YoY)
• Electricians: $63,190 (+1.3% YoY)
• Structural iron and steel workers: $62,770 (+0.1% YoY)
• Brickmasons and blockmasons: $62,130 (+2.2% YoY)
• Sheet metal workers: $61,800 (+1.6% YoY)
• Carpenters: $60,570 (+2.1% YoY)
• Heavy equipment operators: $59,860 (+2.0% YoY)
• Drywall and ceiling tile installers: $58,930 (+1.4% YoY)
• Glaziers: $57,080 (+3.0% YoY)
• Cement masons and concrete finishers: $57,010 (+4.3% YoY)
• Tile and stone setters: $55,680 (+6.6% YoY)
• Roofers: $55,430 (+8.8% YoY)
• Solar photovoltaic installers: $53,140 (+2.5% YoY)
• Painters, construction and maintenance: $49,400 (+1.5% YoY)
• Construction laborers: $47,130 (+0.9% YoY)

Supervisors and managers — median annual wages

• Construction managers: $114,980 (+7.5% YoY)
• First-line supervisors, construction trades: $79,910 (+1.6% YoY)

Construction-adjacent professional roles — median annual wages

• Civil engineers: $100,840 (+1.3% YoY)
• Architects (except landscape and naval): $99,280 (+2.7% YoY)
• Cost estimators: $78,750 (+2.2% YoY)
• Construction and building inspectors: $74,690 (+3.6% YoY)

California state median annual wages (May 2025, OEWS)

• Construction and extraction overall: $71,670 (+20.4% vs. national)
• Construction managers: $133,160 (+15.8% vs. national)
• Civil engineers: $122,500 (+21.5% vs. national)
• Electricians: $76,160 (+20.5% vs. national)
• Plumbers and pipefitters: $72,830 (+14.2% vs. national)
• Carpenters: $75,920 (+25.3% vs. national)
• Heavy equipment operators: $87,160 (+45.6% vs. national)

Southern California metro construction and extraction medians

• LA Metro (Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim): $69,610
• San Diego (San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad): $67,580
• Oxnard (Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura): $64,660
• Inland Empire (Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario): $63,030

Broader construction wage context (ECEC, Q4 2025)

• Total compensation per hour worked, construction: $50.93/hour
• Wages and salaries component: $35.47/hour (69.7% of total)
• Benefits component: $15.45/hour (30.3% of total)

Related: The State of the U.S. Construction Workforce (2026)

---

1. U.S. Construction Wage Overview

$59,550/year National median annual wage for construction and extraction occupations (May 2025, OEWS)

The May 2025 OEWS release, published May 15, 2026, sets the national construction and extraction median annual wage at $59,550, with a mean of $65,360 across approximately 6.4 million U.S. workers covered by the survey under SOC 47-0000. This sits roughly 17% above the all-occupations U.S. median annual wage of $50,980, but below several engineering- and management-intensive industries.

Construction wages did not arrive at this level smoothly. From May 2020 through May 2024, construction medians rose at a faster pace than the broader private-industry workforce, with skilled licensed trades leading the gains. The May 2024 to May 2025 data, by contrast, shows a notable stabilization for many of those same trades, with wage growth shifting toward management roles and toward non-electrical trades like roofing and tile setting. The trajectory of the past five years was driven by three structural pressures operating simultaneously: the aging out of the existing trades workforce (median construction worker now approaching age 43, with apprenticeship intake failing to refill positions at the rate of departures), expanding nonresidential and infrastructure backlogs (federal infrastructure spending, manufacturing reshoring announcements, and unprecedented data center construction growth), and a residential construction mix shifting toward higher-density, more code-intensive projects that demand the same licensed trade categories as commercial work.

The result is a wage structure that no longer behaves like a single national labor market. Construction labor markets are deeply local, governed by state licensing regimes, regional union density, prevailing-wage policies on public works, and the geography of nonresidential project pipelines. National medians remain useful as a baseline but materially understate compensation in coastal urban markets and in specific trades with strong union representation.

This report uses the median annual wage (the 50th percentile of the wage distribution) as its primary benchmark throughout. Median is preferred over mean because construction wage distributions are right-skewed, with a small number of very high earners in management and specialty roles pulling the mean above what a typical worker actually earns. For occupations where BLS publishes only median hourly wages at the national level, annual figures have been calculated by multiplying hourly rates by 2,080 hours. State and metropolitan area medians are taken directly from BLS-published annual percentile data.

---

2. Top Construction Occupations by Employment

1.1 million Construction laborers — the largest construction occupation by employment, setting the wage floor for the industry

The OEWS data confirms that skilled trades and laborer work remain the heart of construction employment. The largest construction and construction-relevant occupations nationally account for the bulk of the workforce contractors benchmark against, and effectively determine the average cost of a construction workforce.

Role	National Employment	Median Annual Wage
Construction laborers	1,096,780	$47,130
First-line supervisors, construction trades	812,210	$79,910
Electricians	757,220	$63,190
Carpenters	670,090	$60,570
Operating engineers (heavy equipment operators)	478,090	$59,860
Plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters	465,840	$63,790
Construction managers	380,360	$114,980
Painters, construction and maintenance	225,190	$49,400
Cement masons and concrete finishers	206,170	$57,010
Construction and building inspectors	146,720	$74,690
Roofers	135,490	$55,430
Sheet metal workers	119,770	$61,800

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 (released May 15, 2026).

Construction laborers are by far the largest occupation, with more than one million workers nationally, and they set the wage floor for the industry. Their median of $47,130 is approximately 27% above the federal minimum wage but well below the licensed trades. Construction laborers are the role most exposed to immigration policy, regional minimum wage laws, and changes in residential building activity.

The largest skilled-trade and field-supervision roles (carpenters, electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, and first-line supervisors) together employ approximately 2.7 million workers and represent the licensed and semi-licensed core of the workforce. Within these occupations, electricians and plumbers have shown the strongest cumulative wage growth over the past five years and the most acute hiring difficulty reported in industry surveys, driven by data center and electrification work in the case of electricians and by industrial plumbing and mechanical retrofit demand in the case of pipefitters. Year-over-year wage growth for these trades from May 2024 to May 2025 was modest, however, suggesting that the prior wage acceleration has plateaued at a new higher level.

The pay distribution across these roles tells a clear story. General laborer and entry-level field work clusters in the high $40,000s. Skilled trades that require multi-year apprenticeship and licensing sit in the high $50,000s to low $60,000s. Supervisory roles top out the trade tier at $79,910. The wage spread from entry labor to construction management is approximately $68,000, illustrating how much room there is for advancement within construction for workers who develop credential depth.

---

3. Highest-Paying Construction Roles

$114,980/year Median annual wage for construction managers — the highest-paying construction-aligned role

The highest-paying construction-aligned roles cluster in two categories: project management and senior trades with high credential barriers. Construction managers ($114,980), elevator installers ($109,910), civil engineers ($100,840), and architects ($99,280) lead the field nationally, followed by first-line supervisors ($79,910), cost estimators ($78,750), and building inspectors ($74,690).

Construction managers, civil engineers, architects, and cost estimators are included as construction-relevant benchmark roles. They are classified outside SOC 47 (construction and extraction) and OEWS data for these occupations reflects cross-industry employment, including workers in mining, manufacturing, government, and professional services as well as construction. See the Methodology section for full discussion.

Within the trade tier itself, several roles stand out for premium compensation:

Construction managers — $114,980 median, up 7.5% YoY. The role requires a combination of credentialed knowledge (often a four-year construction management or engineering degree), substantial field experience, and the ability to manage subcontractor relationships and project budgets. Demand for construction managers has been amplified by the expansion of large data center projects, biotech construction, and the staffing complexity of multi-trade nonresidential builds. The 7.5% year-over-year wage gain is more than three times the aggregate construction wage growth rate and the strongest YoY gain among management and professional roles tracked in this report, signaling that the labor market is now competing most aggressively for credentialed project leaders.

Elevator installers and repairers — $109,910 median. This trade earns nearly twice the median construction wage, reflecting exceptional union density (International Union of Elevator Constructors), restricted apprenticeship intake, and the safety and certification requirements of the work. At the 90th percentile, elevator installers earn well into the $150,000 range, and in California, the state median rises to $141,180. In San Diego, where employment is concentrated in downtown high-rise and biotech campus construction, the metro median is $140,250.

Civil engineers — $100,840 median, up 1.3% YoY. The salaried engineering core of construction. Civil engineers tend to be portable across metros within a state, with California’s premium of 21.5% above national reflecting both the cost of living and the scale of public-works engineering work in the state.

Plumbers and electricians at the upper percentiles. Top-quartile licensed plumbers and electricians regularly exceed $113,000 to $115,000 in annual pay nationally at the 90th percentile, and substantially more in California metros. These figures matter for benchmarking offers to experienced journey-level workers with foreman or master credentials, where the median understates the competitive offer level.

---

4. Geographic Wage Variation

Construction wages vary significantly by state and metropolitan area, with the spread driven by union density, prevailing-wage policy, industry mix, and competition for skilled labor. California, with major aerospace, biotech, transit, and high-rise construction pipelines, illustrates how dramatically state-level and metro-level construction wage benchmarks can diverge from national medians, and from each other.

4.1 California state vs. national

The May 2025 California state median for construction and extraction occupations was $71,670, compared to $59,550 nationally, a premium of approximately 20.4%. Every major construction trade in California carries a positive premium relative to its national counterpart, with the size of the premium varying considerably by occupation.

Role	National Median	CA Median	CA Premium
Construction and extraction overall	$59,550	$71,670	+20.4%
Construction managers	$114,980	$133,160	+15.8%
Civil engineers	$100,840	$122,500	+21.5%
Architects	$99,280	$108,540	+9.3%
First-line supervisors	$79,910	$97,680	+22.2%
Carpenters	$60,570	$75,920	+25.3%
Electricians	$63,190	$76,160	+20.5%
Plumbers and pipefitters	$63,790	$72,830	+14.2%
Heavy equipment operators	$59,860	$87,160	+45.6%
Construction laborers	$47,130	$60,270	+27.9%
Painters	$49,400	$59,020	+19.5%
Building inspectors	$74,690	$101,290	+35.6%
Cost estimators	$78,750	$85,460	+8.5%

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 (released May 15, 2026).

The California premium is not uniform. Heavy equipment operators in California earn 46% more than their national counterparts at the median, the widest gap of any construction trade. This reflects California’s combination of dense union representation in the Operating Engineers Local 12 jurisdiction, prevailing-wage requirements on the state’s substantial public works and transit construction portfolio, and the scale of urban infrastructure work. By contrast, cost estimators carry only an 8.5% California premium and architects 9.3%, reflecting that these professional roles operate in a more nationally-portable labor market where California employers compete with firms in other high-cost metros for the same credentialed pool.

4.2 Southern California metro construction wages

Inside California, the four Southern California metros tracked in this report sit consistently above the national construction median, but they arrange themselves in a clean coastal-to-inland gradient.

Metro	Construction Median	Premium vs. National	vs. CA State
LA Metro	$69,610	+16.9%	−2.9%
San Diego	$67,580	+13.5%	−5.7%
Oxnard	$64,660	+8.6%	−9.8%
Inland Empire	$63,030	+5.8%	−12.1%
California state	$71,670	+20.4%	—
National	$59,550	—	—

LA Metro is the highest-paying construction labor market of the four, sitting nearest to the state average. San Diego follows roughly 3% below LA, then Oxnard another 4% below, and the Inland Empire 7% below LA. The Inland Empire’s median is still nearly 6% above national, despite being the lowest of the four SoCal markets and despite its reputation as a more affordable region.

The metro pattern shifts substantially when individual trades are examined. For skilled licensed trades, San Diego often matches or exceeds LA. For heavy equipment work, LA dominates uniquely. For engineering and management, all four metros cluster tightly.

Role	LA Metro	San Diego	Oxnard	Inland Empire	National
Carpenters	$75,740	$73,200	$74,060	$70,880	$60,570
Electricians	$73,810	$76,160	$64,840	$72,790	$63,190
Plumbers and pipefitters	$71,110	$72,510	$62,300	$63,920	$63,790
Drywall installers	$62,800	$76,290	$63,760	$61,420	$58,930
Heavy equipment operators	$92,890	$83,670	$83,290	$78,720	$59,860
Construction laborers	$58,810	$57,180	$58,950	$59,500	$47,130
Building inspectors	$100,280	$98,580	$84,240	$89,950	$74,690
Construction managers	$131,680	$133,210	$130,700	$126,040	$114,980
Civil engineers	$108,640	$108,900	$108,820	$115,120	$100,840
Architects	$104,170	$120,040	$102,530	$100,460	$99,280

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 (released May 15, 2026). MSA definitions: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario.

Three patterns warrant attention:

The skilled trades are deeply local. Electricians vary by more than $11,000 across the four metros (Oxnard $64,840 to San Diego $76,160). Drywall installers vary by nearly $15,000 (Inland Empire $61,420 to San Diego $76,290). These differences are driven by metro-specific union density, prevailing-wage scales on public works projects, and the local mix of residential, commercial, and biotech construction work. For employers benchmarking trade comp, state-level data is the wrong reference point. The metro-level figure is what the market clears at.

Heavy equipment operators are the most LA-specific premium in the data. LA Metro pays $92,890 at the median, roughly $14,000 above the Inland Empire and $9,000 above San Diego. This is consistent with the geographic concentration of major transit, freeway, downtown high-rise, and port construction work in LA County, much of which is union-staffed under Operating Engineers Local 12 and bound to prevailing-wage scales.

Engineering and management roles are statewide-portable. Civil engineers vary by only about $6,500 across the four metros, with the Inland Empire actually paying the highest median ($115,120). Construction managers cluster within $7,200 of each other across the four metros. Architects vary somewhat more but still less than the variation among trades. This pattern indicates that engineering and managerial labor markets for construction operate at a statewide or even regional level, with employers competing across metro boundaries for the same credentialed pool of workers.

4.3 What this means for regional benchmarking

The metro-level data has a clear implication for any contractor benchmarking compensation in Southern California: California state-level wage data understates wages in some markets and overstates wages in others, depending on the role and the metro. Three practical takeaways:

For project manager, civil engineer, architect, or cost estimator hires in any Southern California metro, expect to pay near-LA rates regardless of where the office or project is physically located. These roles operate in a statewide labor pool, not a metro-bounded one.

For skilled trades hires, the metro-level figure is the right benchmark, not the state figure. Inland Empire trades pay generally below LA and San Diego, and using California’s $71,670 aggregate median to benchmark an Inland Empire trades hire will overstate the market rate.

For heavy equipment operator hires anywhere in Southern California, expect to pay an LA-area premium. The Operating Engineers Local 12 jurisdiction sets a wage floor across the region that other metros track closely but only LA fully matches.

Related: For workforce composition and hiring dynamics in this region, see The State of the Inland Empire Workforce.

---

5. Year-Over-Year Construction Wage Growth

+7.5% YoY Construction manager median wage growth — more than three times the aggregate construction figure (+2.0%) and the strongest gain among management and professional roles tracked

Comparing the May 2024 and May 2025 OEWS national medians reveals a wage structure in transition. Aggregate construction and extraction medians grew 2.0% year-over-year, slower than the 3.4% total compensation gain reported in the Employment Cost Index for the comparable period. The gap between OEWS wage growth and ECI compensation growth implies that benefit costs grew faster than wages, consistent with rising healthcare insurance costs and elevated workers’ compensation premiums in construction. The OEWS data also reveal a sharper bifurcation than the headline 2.0% figure suggests, with management and supervisory roles growing substantially faster than trades.

Strongest wage growth (above the 2.0% aggregate baseline):

• Roofers: +8.8%
• Construction managers: +7.5%
• Tile and stone setters: +6.6%
• Cement masons: +4.3%
• Building inspectors: +3.6%
• Elevator installers: +3.1%
• Glaziers: +3.0%
• Architects: +2.7%
• Solar PV installers: +2.5%
• Brickmasons: +2.2%
• Cost estimators: +2.2%
• Carpenters: +2.1%

Modest wage growth (at or below the baseline):

• Heavy equipment operators: +2.0%
• HAZMAT removal workers: +2.0%
• First-line supervisors: +1.6%
• Sheet metal workers: +1.6%
• Painters: +1.5%
• Drywall installers: +1.4%
• Electricians: +1.3%
• Plumbers and pipefitters: +1.3%
• Civil engineers: +1.3%
• Construction laborers: +0.9%
• Ironworkers (structural): +0.1%

The construction manager figure (+7.5%) is the standout among management and professional roles. It trails only roofers (+8.8%) overall and exceeds growth in every other construction-related management, engineering, and supervisory occupation by a wide margin. The gain reflects intense employer competition for credentialed project leaders capable of running complex commercial, biotech, data center, and industrial builds. Among other salaried roles, only architects (+2.7%) and cost estimators (+2.2%) showed meaningful gains, leaving construction managers as a clear outlier on the office side of construction.

The largest trade gains were in roofing (+8.8%), tile and stone setting (+6.6%), and cement masonry (+4.3%). These categories share a profile: they are non-licensed or lightly-licensed trades with relatively low union density nationally, but with strong demand from residential, light commercial, and post-storm repair work. The roofers gain in particular reflects partial catch-up from a 2024 base that was relatively compressed.

The most striking finding may be what didn’t grow. Despite the data center construction surge and broad industry narratives about electrician shortages, the national median for electricians grew only 1.3% year-over-year, slightly below the aggregate construction figure. Plumbers and pipefitters grew at the same 1.3% rate. Structural ironworkers were essentially flat at 0.1%. Construction laborers grew 0.9%, consistent with minimum-wage floor stability.

Two explanations are possible. First, the 2022 to 2024 wage acceleration in licensed trades may have already pulled medians substantially upward, and 2024 to 2025 represents a period of stabilization at the new higher level. Second, the data center premium for electricians may concentrate in the upper tail of the wage distribution (foremen, project electricians, master electricians on specific large projects) rather than in the median figure. Both explanations likely contribute. For employers benchmarking offers, the practical implication is that headline reports of double-digit wage growth in licensed trades should be interpreted with caution. The median experienced electrician or plumber saw approximately a 1.3% annual pay gain in 2024 to 2025. Where employers see double-digit increases, they are most likely competing for the upper-quartile of the distribution: foremen, master credential-holders, and specialty workers on data center, biotech, or large industrial projects.

State and metro YoY comparisons require the corresponding May 2024 state and metro OEWS files; those figures will be incorporated in future updates to this benchmark.

---

6. Construction Wage Distribution and Percentiles

$140,340/year 90th percentile annual wage for electricians in California — well above the $115,810 national 90th percentile and illustrating how much wider California wage distributions are than national distributions

The percentile distribution within construction occupations matters more than the median alone for compensation planning. A median tells you what half the workforce earns; the 10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentiles tell you where competitive offers actually land and how wide the comp band realistically should be. The May 2025 OEWS release publishes full percentile distributions for each occupation, and the spreads reveal substantial variation within roles that are often treated as homogeneous.

National percentile spreads for selected trades

Role	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th
Carpenters	$36,890	$46,280	$60,570	$77,940	$96,180
Electricians	$39,030	$48,400	$63,190	$83,840	$115,810
Plumbers and pipefitters	$39,650	$49,290	$63,790	$84,400	$113,580
Heavy equipment operators	$39,200	$47,650	$59,860	$79,000	$107,400
Construction laborers	$32,290	$37,260	$47,130	$61,990	$80,360

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 (released May 15, 2026).

The spread between the 10th and 90th percentiles for electricians and plumbers is substantial. A 90th-percentile licensed electrician earns approximately $115,810 nationally, while a 10th-percentile electrician earns $39,030. The 90th-percentile figure typically captures journey-level union electricians, master electricians, and electrical foremen working on major commercial and industrial projects. The 10th percentile captures apprentices, helpers, and workers in lower-density residential markets.

California percentile spreads

California construction wage distributions are wider still, because the state’s combination of high-wage union markets and entry-level residential markets pulls the percentiles apart.

Role	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th
Carpenters	$47,490	$59,740	$75,920	$95,830	$119,950
Electricians	$46,800	$59,280	$76,160	$103,000	$140,340
Plumbers and pipefitters	$47,350	$58,980	$72,830	$100,200	$131,100
Heavy equipment operators	$52,760	$65,230	$87,160	$125,560	$132,210
Construction laborers	$40,950	$48,140	$60,270	$78,520	$93,620

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 (released May 15, 2026). Note: the California heavy equipment operator distribution shows a narrower spread between the 75th ($125,560) and 90th ($132,210) percentiles than between the median and 75th percentile. Employers benchmarking against upper-percentile rates for this occupation should interpret the top of the range with care and supplement OEWS data with local union wage scales and project-specific market intelligence where available.

The 90th-percentile California electrician earns $140,340, well above the 90th-percentile national figure of $115,810. The 90th-percentile California heavy equipment operator earns $132,210, more than $24,000 above the national 90th percentile. These figures define the upper end of the California construction wage market and represent the rates at which experienced, credentialed, union-affiliated workers can be hired in competitive markets.

For employers, the 25th-to-75th percentile spread is often more practically relevant than the median alone. This range captures the bulk of journey-level workers and indicates the realistic offer band for an experienced trades hire. In California, the 25th-to-75th band for electricians runs from $59,280 to $103,000, a $43,720 spread. Offers below the 25th percentile risk failing to attract experienced applicants; offers above the 75th percentile typically require justification through specialized credentials, foreman status, or scarce specialty expertise.

---

7. Total Compensation Beyond Wages

$50.93/hour Total employer compensation per hour worked in construction (Q4 2025, BLS ECEC)

OEWS wage data captures direct pay only. The full cost of employing a construction worker, and the full economic value the worker receives, includes employer-paid benefits, supplemental pay, and legally required contributions. According to BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) data published in March 2026 (reference period December 2025), total compensation in construction averaged $50.93 per hour worked, with wages and salaries at $35.47 per hour (69.7%) and benefits at $15.45 per hour (30.3%).

Construction’s total compensation cost of $50.93 per hour worked exceeded the private-industry overall average of $46.15 per hour by approximately 10%. The construction industry’s benefits share at 30.3% of total compensation also runs slightly above the private-industry average of 29.9%, reflecting the comparatively rich benefits packages associated with unionized trades, including defined-benefit pensions, supplemental health and welfare funds, and apprenticeship training contributions.

The major categories within the construction benefits component typically break down as follows: insurance (primarily health) at approximately $3.72 per hour (7.3% of total compensation), legally required benefits including Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation at approximately $4.81 per hour (9.4%), paid leave at approximately $2.45 per hour (4.8%), retirement and savings (both defined-benefit and defined-contribution plans) at approximately $2.31 per hour (4.5%), and supplemental pay including overtime, bonuses, and shift differentials at approximately $2.16 per hour (4.2%). Construction’s elevated workers’ compensation costs (a function of the industry’s injury rates) and its substantial defined-benefit pension contributions in unionized work are the two factors that most distinguish its benefits structure from the broader private-industry pattern.

Union representation drives a substantial portion of construction’s compensation premium. BLS ECEC bargaining-status data for all private-industry workers shows union workers averaging $62.13 per hour in total compensation versus $44.78 per hour for nonunion workers, a roughly 39% gap, with benefits making up a markedly larger share of union compensation. Construction sits among the private-industry sectors where union density most influences compensation outcomes, particularly through defined-benefit pensions and multiemployer health and welfare funds. While BLS does not routinely publish construction-specific union/nonunion compensation breakouts, the industry’s combination of high overall benefits share (30.3%) and significant union representation in major metros means the union/nonunion compensation differential is a meaningful component of the construction labor market and a key consideration in any competitive benchmarking exercise.

For an employer budgeting construction labor, the 30.3% benefits share means that the OEWS wage medians used throughout this report capture only about 70% of the actual cost of employing a construction worker. A construction laborer earning $47,130 in annual median wages nationally corresponds to roughly $67,300 in total annual compensation cost from the employer’s perspective. A median California construction manager earning $133,160 in annual wages corresponds to a total compensation cost approaching $190,500 per year when benefits and supplemental pay are included. Wage-only benchmarking is therefore useful for comparing base-pay offers between employers, but it understates the true cost of building a construction workforce. Benefits packages can vary substantially by union local, contractor, and project type, so total-compensation comparisons require role- and employer-specific data beyond OEWS medians.

Related: For broader workforce context including labor force composition and hiring dynamics, see The State of the U.S. Construction Workforce.

---

8. What’s Driving Construction Wage Trends in 2026

Several structural forces shape construction wages in 2026. Understanding these dynamics matters more for compensation planning than tracking month-to-month wage moves.

Wage growth has shifted from trades to management. The May 2024 to May 2025 OEWS data show construction managers gaining 7.5% in median pay while electricians, plumbers, and ironworkers grew approximately 1.3% or less. The implication is that the 2022 to 2024 wage surge in licensed trades pulled medians to a new plateau, and competition has shifted to credentialed managers who can run multi-trade projects on tight schedules. Construction manager employment also expanded sharply in the same period, growing approximately 9.2% from 348,330 in May 2024 to 380,360 in May 2025. Wage gains and headcount expansion are reinforcing each other rather than substituting, a pattern consistent with intense employer competition for credentialed project leaders. Among construction-adjacent professional roles, only architects (+2.7%) and cost estimators (+2.2%) showed meaningful gains.

Demographic compression continues. The U.S. construction workforce has been aging faster than the general workforce. The median construction worker is now approximately 43 years old, and apprenticeship intake has not kept pace with retirements in skilled trades. The pipeline shortage is most acute in licensed electrical, plumbing, mechanical, and HVAC work, all of which require multi-year apprenticeship completion and state licensing examinations. Industry surveys conducted by Associated Builders and Contractors and Associated General Contractors consistently report that more than 80% of construction firms have difficulty filling hourly craft positions, with the difficulty rate exceeding 90% for licensed electricians and project supervisors. The result is sustained upward pressure on wages for experienced, licensed, and supervisory workers, combined with relatively flat real wages for entry-level laborer positions that are more easily filled.

Public works and prevailing wage set a floor in major markets. Approximately a quarter of U.S. construction spending is funded by federal, state, or local government, and most public construction work is subject to prevailing-wage requirements under the federal Davis-Bacon Act or comparable state laws. California’s prevailing-wage regime is among the strictest in the country and applies to most state and local public works projects of any significant size. The practical effect is that prevailing-wage scales operate as a binding floor on wages in major California metros for any construction firm bidding on public work, and they also influence private-sector wage benchmarks because workers move between public and private projects.

The data center premium may be concentrated above the median. The single most important new demand driver since 2023 has been the unprecedented expansion of data center construction. Data center projects are exceptionally electrical-intensive, requiring concentrations of licensed electricians, electrical foremen, low-voltage technicians, and HVAC mechanics that exceed the staffing density of any other commercial building type. National data center development pipelines tripled between 2022 and 2025, and individual hyperscale projects routinely require workforces of more than 1,000 trades workers on site for extended construction periods. The competition for electricians and electrical supervisors created by this pipeline is real and ongoing, but its wage effects are not visible in the May 2024 to May 2025 OEWS median for electricians, which grew only 1.3%. The most plausible interpretation, pending percentile-by-percentile YoY analysis in subsequent OEWS releases, is that the data center premium concentrates in upper-tail compensation (foremen, project leads, master credential-holders) and in specific metros with active data center construction, rather than across the national electrician median. Industry surveys also report that electrician employment is projected to grow approximately 9.5% from 2024 to 2034, well above the 3.1% overall employment growth rate.

Input cost pressure constrains labor budgets. Construction input prices rose 4.8% year-over-year as of March 2026, the largest annual increase since January 2023. Nonresidential construction input prices rose 5.4% over the same period. Rising material costs constrain the share of project budgets available for labor, but in tight labor markets they typically do not translate to wage reductions. Instead, they show up as compressed contractor margins, project delays, and increased pressure on owners to phase or value-engineer projects.

Immigration and the laborer tier. The construction laborer occupation is the most exposed to changes in immigration enforcement and visa policy. Approximately 30% of the U.S. construction workforce is foreign-born, with concentrations in laborer, residential framing, drywall, roofing, and landscape construction work. Federal policy shifts affecting immigration in 2025 introduced additional uncertainty for these workforce segments, with some regional labor markets reporting tightening at the laborer tier and corresponding upward pressure on hourly rates.

---

9. Construction Wage Outlook

The construction labor market enters mid-2026 with most of the structural pressures driving 2022 to 2024 wage growth still in place, but with the May 2024 to May 2025 OEWS data showing a clear stabilization at the new higher wage levels for most licensed trades. Three forces will shape the next twelve months.

The first is the continuing shift in where wage competition concentrates. The May 2024 to May 2025 data shows construction managers gaining 7.5% in median pay while electricians, plumbers, and ironworkers grew approximately 1% or less. Expect continued strength in construction manager and architectural and engineering manager pay through 2026, particularly for those with data center, biotech, or large-industrial project experience. To the extent that data center demand is driving wage premiums for licensed trades, the May 2025 OEWS data suggests those effects are most likely to appear above the median (in foreman and master credential-holder compensation) rather than in headline median wage growth.

The second is the continuing bifurcation between coastal and inland California markets. The trades wage gap between LA Metro and San Diego on one side and the Inland Empire on the other is likely to persist or widen, as coastal data center, biotech, and high-rise construction pipelines expand faster than warehouse construction in the inland markets. Engineering and management wages, by contrast, will likely remain statewide-portable, with Inland Empire and Oxnard employers continuing to compete at near-LA rates for credentialed project leaders.

The third is the structural-shortage durability. The skilled trades workforce continues to age, replacement training is constrained, and immigration policy uncertainty affects the foreign-born share of the construction workforce. None of these resolve through wage moderation. They suggest continued upward pressure on the upper percentiles of skilled trade compensation, on project management compensation, and on total compensation packages (where benefits are an increasingly important differentiator) even as headline median wage growth slows for licensed trades.

For 2027 wage planning, contractors should expect: continued strong growth for credentialed project managers and supervisors; stabilization for licensed trade medians with continued upward pressure at the 75th and 90th percentiles; moderating growth for general laborer roles tied to minimum-wage floors; and heightened importance of total compensation packages, particularly benefits and retirement, as wage gaps with adjacent industries narrow.

The October to November 2025 federal government shutdown caused BLS to delay the OEWS May 2025 release by roughly six weeks compared to the typical early-April publication cadence, with the data ultimately released on May 15, 2026. BLS reported that the survey panel response rate was within the normal range and that no methodology or procedural modifications were required as a result of the shutdown. Year-over-year comparisons in this report rely on the official BLS May 2024 and May 2025 estimates as published.

---

What This Means for Construction Leaders

• Benchmark by role and by metro, not by state or national average. The wage spread within construction is wider than the spread between construction and adjacent sectors, and metro-level wages in the same state can diverge by more than 20% for the same role
• Pay specific attention to the construction manager and project supervisor markets, where wage growth has accelerated to multiples of the trade-level rate
• For California hires, use metro-level data for trades benchmarking. The state median overstates Inland Empire trades wages and understates LA-area heavy equipment operator wages
• Build percentile-aware comp bands. 25th-percentile offers won’t compete for experienced licensed trades, but 75th-percentile offers may be wasted on roles where median is sufficient
• Treat total compensation, not wages alone, as the competitive metric. Benefits represent roughly 30% of construction comp cost and are a meaningful differentiator, particularly in union markets
• For licensed trades hires, expect to compete at the 75th percentile or above for experienced journey-level workers. The headline median understates what competitive offers actually look like in 2026

---

Key Takeaways

• Aggregate construction and extraction wages grew 2.0% year-over-year from May 2024 to May 2025, with growth concentrated in management and select non-electrical trades rather than spread evenly
• Construction managers led management and professional roles with 7.5% YoY median wage growth, more than three times the aggregate construction and extraction wage gain
• Roofers (+8.8%), tile and stone setters (+6.6%), and cement masons (+4.3%) led trade-level gains; electricians (+1.3%), plumbers (+1.3%), and ironworkers (+0.1%) stabilized after prior-cycle acceleration
• California construction medians sit 20.4% above national; heavy equipment operators carry the widest California premium (+45.6%), reflecting Operating Engineers Local 12 jurisdiction and public-works prevailing wage
• Southern California metros form a coastal-to-inland gradient: LA Metro $69,610, San Diego $67,580, Oxnard $64,660, Inland Empire $63,030
• Skilled trades are deeply local with $11,000 to $15,000 metro-to-metro variation; engineering and management roles operate as a near-statewide labor market with civil engineers and construction managers clustering within $7,000 across the four metros
• Percentile spreads within trades are wide. California electricians span $46,800 (10th percentile) to $140,340 (90th percentile), and competitive offers for experienced licensed workers cluster at or above the 75th percentile
• Total compensation in construction averaged $50.93 per hour worked in Q4 2025, with benefits at 30.3% of total, above the private-industry average and reflecting unionized trades’ richer benefits packages
• The data center construction surge is real and ongoing but its wage effects are not visible in the May 2024 to May 2025 median for electricians; the most plausible interpretation is that the premium concentrates above the median in foreman and master-credential compensation, pending percentile-by-percentile YoY data in subsequent OEWS releases

---

Methodology & Sources

This report consolidates publicly available federal data and industry research to provide a comprehensive view of U.S. construction wages in 2026.

The report was compiled in May 2026 using the most recent BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release (May 2025 reference period, published May 15, 2026), with supplementary data from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation through Q4 2025 (released March 20, 2026), BLS Employment Cost Index through Q1 2026 (released April 30, 2026), and industry research from Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) and Associated General Contractors (AGC).

Scope

• Occupational scope: Construction and extraction occupations (SOC 47-xxxx); construction-relevant management occupations including Construction Managers (SOC 11-9021); construction-relevant architecture and engineering occupations including Civil Engineers (SOC 17-2051), Architects, Except Landscape and Naval (SOC 17-1011), and Cost Estimators (SOC 13-1051). Including SOC 11, 13, and 17 occupations alongside SOC 47 trade roles reflects how contractors actually staff projects and benchmark wages, even though OEWS classifies these under separate occupational groups.
• Industry context: NAICS 23 (Construction)
• Geography: United States, with state-level data for California and metropolitan area data for Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim (MSA 31080), San Diego–Chula Vista–Carlsbad (MSA 41740), Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura (MSA 37100), and Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario (MSA 40140).
• Wage definition: Median base wages from OEWS unless noted otherwise. Total compensation figures from ECEC include base wages, supplemental pay, employer-paid benefits (insurance, retirement, legally required), and paid leave.

Note on annualized median wages

OEWS publishes hourly wage percentiles for most occupations and annual wage percentiles separately. For national-level data, BLS publishes median hourly wages in the news release, and annual median wages in this report were calculated by annualizing the OEWS median hourly wage at 2,080 hours per year (40 hours per week × 52 weeks). State and metropolitan area data are published as annual wage percentiles directly by BLS, and those annual figures are used directly in this report without manual annualization.

Note on cross-industry occupational data

OEWS occupation-level wage data is cross-industry by default. Wages reflect what a given occupation earns wherever it works, not exclusively within construction. For occupations heavily concentrated in construction (carpenters, electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment operators, drywall installers, ironworkers, and other SOC 47-xxxx trades), cross-industry medians closely reflect construction-industry wages. For occupations employed broadly across the economy (construction managers, civil engineers, architects, cost estimators), the OEWS medians reflect cross-industry compensation, not construction-only compensation. The report uses these figures as construction-relevant occupational wage benchmarks rather than as industry-specific construction wages. BLS also publishes industry-specific OEWS data at the NAICS 4-digit level in supplementary tables for users requiring strict construction-only cuts.

Note on the 2025 federal government shutdown

The U.S. federal government shutdown from October 1 to November 12, 2025 delayed the OEWS May 2025 release by approximately six weeks compared to the typical early-April publication cadence. BLS published the May 2025 reference period on May 15, 2026, and reported that the survey panel response rate was within the normal range and that no methodology or procedural modifications were required. The December 2025 ECEC release was published on the standard schedule on March 20, 2026, while the September 2025 ECEC release was published without a detailed news release narrative due to compressed post-shutdown scheduling.

Primary Sources

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Official U.S. government wage and employment data at the occupation level. The May 2025 OEWS estimates were released May 15, 2026, and are the primary source for occupation-level wage figures in this report.

• News release: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm
• National data: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm
• State data: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm
• Metropolitan area data: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC). Used for total compensation and benefits-share figures, December 2025 reference period (Q4 2025), released March 20, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employment Cost Index (ECI). Used for year-over-year compensation growth context. https://www.bls.gov/eci/

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employment Projections. Used for the 2024 to 2034 electrician employment growth projection. https://www.bls.gov/emp/

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) and Associated General Contractors (AGC). Used for industry survey data on hiring difficulty, construction backlog, and input price trends.