Plumbers earned a median $35.99 an hour in the Philadelphia area in May 2025, the most of nine home repair trades

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 08:39:33 -0400

Plumbers in the Philadelphia area earned a median wage of $35.99 an hour in May 2025, the highest of nine trades that work on houses, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Electricians were close behind at $35.86. Construction laborers were lowest of the nine at $26.50, just above the $26.11 median for all jobs in the area. The median is the middle wage: half the workers in a trade earned more and half earned less.

The figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, a survey of employers that BLS publishes each year with May as the reference month. They cover the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area, which BLS defines as 11 counties in four states, Montgomery County among them. Plumbers’ median was up 3.2% from May 2024 and 24.9% from May 2018, the first year BLS published figures for the whole metro area rather than its divisions.

Plumbers' median wage rose faster than carpenters' from 2018 to 2025

Median hourly wage, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area, May of each year, dollars

Plumbers
Carpenters
All occupations

Estimates pool three years of survey responses. BLS does not encourage comparisons over time. Source: bls.gov

Wages by trade

The survey reports a range for each trade as well as the median. In carpentry, which had 14,260 jobs in the metro area, the 10th percentile was $21.97 an hour and the 90th percentile $47.34. A percentile is the wage below which that share of workers fall, so one carpenter in ten earned less than $21.97. Plumbing had the widest range of the nine, from $23.27 at the 10th percentile to $68.37 at the 90th.

Wages for nine home repair trades and all occupations, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area, May 2025. Annual figures assume 2,080 hours of work a year.
Occupation	SOC code	Jobs	10th percentile ($/hr)	25th percentile ($/hr)	Median ($/hr)	75th percentile ($/hr)	90th percentile ($/hr)	Median annual ($)	Median change since 2024 (%)	Median change since 2018 (%)
Plumbers	47-2152	7,150	23.27	29.28	35.99	49.89	68.37	$74,860	3.2%	24.9%
Electricians	47-2111	10,090	22.59	27.84	35.86	50.11	63.76	$74,590	0.7%	11.4%
Tile setters	47-2044	390	19.37	24.64	34.01	38.68	46.92	$70,730	22.4%	44.7%
HVAC mechanics	49-9021	8,610	21.88	25.00	31.05	37.99	48.46	$64,580	2.8%	18.0%
Carpenters	47-2031	14,260	21.97	23.17	29.70	36.83	47.34	$61,780	-0.9%	7.9%
Drywall installers	47-2081	980	18.03	22.41	29.46	31.99	45.00	$61,280	-3.4%	16.4%
Roofers	47-2181	1,530	19.49	23.83	28.72	34.93	41.65	$59,730	0.8%	24.9%
Painters	47-2141	3,360	18.04	23.21	27.60	30.69	37.00	$57,410	2.9%	25.4%
Construction laborers	47-2061	14,580	18.46	22.43	26.50	34.37	40.00	$55,120	3.6%	32.0%
All occupations	00-0000	2,897,830	15.00	18.00	26.11	40.76	62.63	$54,310	4.9%	27.6%

Source: bls.gov

Tile and stone setters had the third-highest median, $34.01, after a 22.4% rise from May 2024. The survey counted 390 of them in the metro area, the smallest group in the table, and an estimate built on so few workers can move a lot from one year to the next. Heating and air conditioning mechanics earned a median $31.05, carpenters $29.70, drywall installers $29.46, roofers $28.72 and painters $27.60.

How the trades moved since 2018

From May 2018 to May 2025, the median wage for all jobs in the metro area rose 27.6%, from $20.47 to $26.11. Two of the nine trades rose faster: tile setters, by 44.7% on a small count, and construction laborers, by 32.0%. Painters rose 25.4%, plumbers and roofers 24.9% each, and heating and air conditioning mechanics 18.0%. Electricians rose 11.4% and carpenters 7.9%.

Carpenters’ median fell to $26.31 in May 2021, its low for the period, then rose in each of the next three years to $29.98 in May 2024. It slipped 0.9% to $29.70 in May 2025. Drywall installers fell 3.4% over the same year. The all-jobs median rose 4.9%.

The number of jobs in most of these trades changed little. The survey counted 13,020 carpenters in May 2018 and 14,260 in May 2025, and 10,560 electricians in May 2018 against 10,090 in May 2025.

What this means for a remodeling quote

A wage is what the worker is paid. BLS says these estimates leave out the employer’s cost of benefits such as health insurance and retirement contributions. A contractor’s hourly labor rate also has to cover payroll taxes, insurance, overhead and profit, so it will sit above these medians. The medians are a starting point for reading the labor line of a quote.

Here is an example with round numbers. Suppose a quote for a basement room lists 40 hours of carpentry. At the area’s median carpenter wage of $29.70, the wages alone come to $1,188. At the 90th percentile, $47.34, they come to $1,893.60. If the labor line on your quote is several times either figure, ask the contractor what the rate includes and how many people the hours cover.

On a time-and-materials job, where you pay for the hours worked plus materials, Pennsylvania’s Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act requires a written cost estimate and caps the overrun. The contractor hiring guide and the change orders guide cover those rules. The guide to what remodeling costs explains how to read the materials side of a quote. Roofers are covered in more depth by Conshy Roofers.

Caveats

BLS builds each year’s estimates from six panels of survey responses collected over three years, adjusting the older wages to the current May. The bureau’s FAQ says it “does not encourage the use of OEWS data for time-series analysis.” The changes in this article are differences between published estimates, and part of any one-year change can come from the sample. BLS also changed its occupation codes during the period. The May 2018 estimates use the 2010 classification, the May 2019 and May 2020 estimates mix the 2010 and 2018 classifications, and May 2021 was the first year built entirely on the 2018 codes.

The survey covers wage and salary employees, so owner-operators who do the work themselves are outside these figures. The metro area covers Philadelphia and its suburbs in Pennsylvania along with counties in New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, and BLS publishes these estimates for the metro area as a whole. The area’s 11 counties were the same in the May 2018 and May 2025 definitions. Wages in Conshohocken and the nearby townships may differ from the metro median.

Wages | Conshy Contractor

Plumbers earned a median $35.99 an hour in the Philadelphia area in May 2025, the most of nine home repair trades

Wages by trade

How the trades moved since 2018

What this means for a remodeling quote

Caveats