The headline numbers
$84,713/yr average industry wage, the top of all 11 trades.
$50,364/yr — a $34,349 gap from the top trade.
Median annual wage across the 11 distinct contractor industries.
These figures cover 4,333,783 workers across 587,233 establishments — a near-census of every job covered by unemployment insurance in these industries, not a survey sample. The single most important caveat before reading another number: this is the wage workers in the industry are paid, not the price you pay to hire a contractor. A project quote layers materials, overhead, permits, insurance, and profit on top of labor. For real project costs from building-permit valuations, see our Real Cost Index.
Every trade, by national wage
All 11distinct contractor industries, highest wage first. "vs. median" shows how each trade compares to the $72,197all-industry median. "States reporting" is how many states publish a wage for the trade — the rest were suppressed by BLS for privacy and fall back to the national figure. Each trade links to its ProFix hub.
| Rank | Trade industry | Annual wage | vs. median | States reporting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Electrician | $84,713 | +$12,516 (+17.3%) | 50 / 50 |
| 2 | Computer & Electronics Repair | $81,248 | +$9,051 (+12.5%) | 40 / 50 |
| 3 | HVAC Technician / Plumberone BLS industry | $79,679 | +$7,482 (+10.4%) | 50 / 50 |
| 4 | General Contractor | $74,780 | +$2,583 (+3.6%) | 50 / 50 |
| 5 | Roofer | $72,202 | +$5 (+0%) | 47 / 50 |
| 6 | Concrete Contractor | $72,197 | — | 41 / 50 |
| 7 | Siding Contractor | $60,749 | −$11,448 (−15.9%) | 20 / 50 |
| 8 | Painter | $58,673 | −$13,524 (−18.7%) | 48 / 50 |
| 9 | Pest Control Service | $58,124 | −$14,073 (−19.5%) | 42 / 50 |
| 10 | Appliance Repair Tech | $56,892 | −$15,305 (−21.2%) | 13 / 50 |
| 11 | Landscaper | $50,364 | −$21,833 (−30.2%) | 50 / 50 |
The general-contractor gap
A general contractor earns $74,780 a year on average — squarely mid-pack. Only 3 trade industries out-earn the GC: Electrician (+$9,933), Computer & Electronics Repair (+$6,468), HVAC Technician / Plumber (+$4,899). The GC out-earns the other 7, by as much as $24,416 over landscapers. The takeaway homeowners and tradespeople both miss: "general contractor" is not the top-paying path in the trades — several specialties out-earn it on industry wages.
Where you work matters: highest- and lowest-paying state per trade
For each trade with at least two states reporting, the best- and worst-paying states and the gap between them. The spread is real money: the widest belongs to computer & electronics repairs, where the top state pays 1.97× what the bottom state does. High-cost-of-living states cluster at the top; lower-cost states at the bottom — so a raw wage gap is partly a cost-of-living gap, not pure opportunity.
| Trade | Highest-paying state | Wage | Lowest-paying state | Wage | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer & Electronics Repair | Washington | $117,852 | Kentucky | $59,713 | $58,139 (1.97×) |
| General Contractor | District of Columbia | $102,748 | West Virginia | $49,107 | $53,641 (2.09×) |
| HVAC Technician | District of Columbia | $103,372 | Arkansas | $61,911 | $41,461 (1.67×) |
| Plumber | District of Columbia | $103,372 | Arkansas | $61,911 | $41,461 (1.67×) |
| Roofer | New Hampshire | $96,778 | Wyoming | $57,001 | $39,777 (1.7×) |
| Concrete Contractor | Massachusetts | $93,695 | Louisiana | $54,166 | $39,529 (1.73×) |
| Electrician | Oregon | $104,338 | Florida | $65,337 | $39,001 (1.6×) |
| Appliance Repair Tech | Massachusetts | $85,017 | Georgia | $48,841 | $36,176 (1.74×) |
| Siding Contractor | Oregon | $77,851 | Idaho | $45,411 | $32,440 (1.71×) |
| Painter | Hawaii | $71,429 | Idaho | $43,407 | $28,022 (1.65×) |
| Pest Control Service | Utah | $75,241 | New Mexico | $47,495 | $27,746 (1.58×) |
| Landscaper | Massachusetts | $62,809 | New Mexico | $41,634 | $21,175 (1.51×) |
Plumber and HVAC show identical state figures here for the same reason they share a national wage: they are one BLS industry (NAICS 238220). We list both rows so each trade is answerable by name, but the numbers are not two independent measurements.
Methodology and honesty notes
- Source. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) (2024 annual data), filtered to Private (own_code 5)establishments in each trade's contractor NAICS industry. QCEW is a near-census of jobs covered by unemployment insurance, not a survey — and it is public-domain U.S. government data (17 U.S.C. 105). ProFix republishes the computed atlas as open data, CC-BY-4.0.
- Industry wage, not a hire price.Every figure is the employment-weighted average wage (total covered payroll ÷ covered workers) of the trade's industry — what workers are paid, not what a homeowner pays to hire a contractor. Project prices add materials, overhead, permits, insurance, and profit on top of labor.
- Plumber + HVAC are one BLS industry. Both trades map to NAICS 238220, which BLS reports as a single figure. We collapse them to one industry in every ranking and the national table; the per-state table lists both rows for answerability but they carry identical numbers.
- Suppression is absence, never zero. Where BLS withholds a state figure to protect employer privacy, we report it as not-reported and fall back to the national wage — we never impute a value or substitute zero. That is why trades vary in how many states report.
- Distinct-industry math. The national median, spread, weighted mean, and the GC gap are computed over the 11 distinct NAICS industries (the shared plumbing+HVAC industry counted once), so no figure is double-weighted.
- Computed live. Every number is read from the committed seed at render time. If the seed is rebuilt for a newer QCEW year, this page updates automatically — no value here is hardcoded.
Prefer the raw data? The full atlas — national and per-state, every trade — is a single machine-readable fetch at /api/open-data/wages.json (CORS-enabled, CC-BY-4.0).
Related ProFix research & tools
Frequently asked questions
How much does a contractor make a year?
It depends heavily on the trade. Across the 11 distinct contractor industries in U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics QCEW data (2024 year), the average annual industry wage ranges from $84,713 for electricians — the highest-paid trade — down to $50,364 for landscapers. The all-industry median is $72,197/yr. Note this is the WAGE workers in the industry are paid, not the price you pay to hire a contractor.
Is this the salary, or what it costs to hire a contractor?
The salary — the average WAGE paid to workers employed in the trade's industry (total covered payroll divided by covered workers), from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics QCEW. It is NOT the price a homeowner pays to hire that contractor; a project price includes materials, overhead, permits, insurance, and profit on top of labor. For real project costs from building-permit valuations, see our Real Cost Index. We keep the two strictly separate so neither number is misread as the other.
Why do plumber and HVAC show the same wage?
Because the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does not separate them. Both map to one industry — NAICS 238220, "Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors" — so BLS publishes a single wage that covers both trades. We show it once as a combined "Plumber / HVAC" industry in every ranking and label the pair wherever it appears, rather than presenting one number twice as if they were independent findings.
Which state pays contractors the most?
It varies by trade — there is no single "best-paying state" for every trade. The widest state-to-state gap we measured is for computer & electronics repairs: Washington pays an average $117,852 while Kentucky pays $59,713 — a 1.97× difference. High-wage, high-cost-of-living states (Washington, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia) sit near the top across most trades; lower-cost states sit near the bottom. Each trade's full state table is above.
Why is a state sometimes missing from a trade's table?
Because BLS suppressed it. When the number of workers or establishments in a trade is small enough that publishing a wage could identify a specific employer, BLS withholds the figure for that state. We treat a missing state as "not reported" — we never impute a value, and we never substitute zero. Where a state is suppressed, the national figure is the best available answer for that trade. This is why some trades (like appliance repair) have far fewer states than others (like electricians, plumbers, and general contractors, which all report in 50).
Where does this data come from?
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) (2024 annual data), filtered to private-ownership establishments in each trade's contractor NAICS industry. QCEW is a near-census of jobs covered by unemployment insurance — not a survey sample — and is public-domain U.S. government data (17 U.S.C. 105). ProFix republishes the computed atlas as open data (CC-BY-4.0). Every figure on this page is read from a committed seed at render time, so it updates with the source and is never hardcoded.