Know What the Market Pays — Before You Make an Offer
BLS-powered salary benchmarks, full O*NET occupational profiles, and offer-ready salary bands built specifically for specialty trade contractors. Stop the 56-day hiring cycle. Stop paying to re-recruit.
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- O*NET 30.x Data
- National + State + MSA Benchmarks
- 10–200 Employee Contractors
- No Enterprise Contract
Electricians · SOC 47-2111
Dallas–Fort Worth MSA
| Percentile | Hourly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $18.92 | $39,350 |
| 25th | $24.11 | $50,150 |
| 50th | $31.45 | $65,420 |
| 75th | $40.02 | $83,240 |
| 90th | $48.77 | $101,440 |
Source: BLS OEWS May 2024 · Illustrative figures
The Cost of Guessing
The 56-Day Hiring Cycle
The average specialty trade contractor vacancy sits open for 56 days — longer than a software developer role. The cause: no reliable, affordable way to benchmark wages by SOC code, metro area, and experience level. A mis-priced offer sends a candidate to a competitor. You re-post, re-interview, re-offer. Estimated cost: ~$9,900 in lost productivity per open electrician role.
The Re-Recruit Trap
A declined offer due to salary triggers a full re-recruit cycle. SHRM benchmarks put the cost at 10–20% of annual salary — $5,600–$14,000 for a typical trade hire. Add overtime premiums covering the vacancy ($8,000–$15,000/year) and the true cost of a single mis-priced offer exceeds a year of your field operations software.
The Turnover Event
Pay an electrician or HVAC tech below market and they leave within 18 months. Replacement cost: $13,000–$26,000 per departure (SHRM benchmark: 20–40% of annual salary). Trade employers who track their own turnover consistently cite underpayment as the primary driver — yet most have no tool to know where they stand relative to the market.
The Data Gap Nobody Fills
Enterprise compensation platforms like PayScale Payfactors cost $27,000+/year and carry no trade SOC taxonomy. The BLS OEWS portal is free but requires downloading tab-delimited CSV files, finding the right SOC code, and building the band in a spreadsheet — a 2–3 hour process that most owner-operators attempt once and abandon. There is no middle tier.
BLS Data. O*NET Profiles. Salary Bands. In Under 8 Minutes.
Accurate BLS Benchmarks
Pull 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile wages for any trade occupation — nationally, by state, or by metro area — from the same BLS OEWS dataset used by enterprise compensation teams. Updated annually. Cited transparently.
Full O*NET Occupational Profiles
Every occupation comes enriched with the complete O*NET profile: skills, tasks, knowledge areas, abilities, work context, and Job Zone (education/experience level). Understand the role before you benchmark the pay.
Offer-Ready Salary Bands
Select a percentile anchor, set a spread buffer, and generate a structured min/midpoint/max band in seconds. Build entry, journey, and senior bands simultaneously. Export as branded PDF or CSV.
Everything in one purpose-built interface
Trade Taxonomy Browser
10 pre-built categories: Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC, Welding, Carpentry, Masonry, Pipefitting, Sheet Metal, Ironworking, Heavy Equipment. No SOC code required.
BLS Wage Percentile Table
10th/25th/50th/75th/90th percentiles, hourly and annual, with year-over-year change indicators.
MSA Geographic Drill-Down
National → State → Metro Area → County. Benchmark Dallas wages vs. Houston wages vs. the Texas state average in a single session.
O*NET Profile Integration
Full skills, tasks, knowledge, abilities, work context, and Job Zone on every occupation page. O*NET CC BY 4.0 attribution included.
Salary Band Generator
Configurable percentile anchor (default: 50th) and spread buffer (default: ±15%). Multi-level entry/journey/senior bands from a single lookup.
PDF + CSV Export
Branded PDF reports with your company name and BLS/O*NET attribution. CSV export for import into BambooHR or Excel.
How It Works
Search Your Occupation
Type "HVAC technician" or browse the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration category. Find SOC 49-9021 in seconds.
Select Your Geography
Drill down from national to state to your metro area. See how Houston compares to the Texas state median.
Generate Your Salary Band
Set your percentile anchor and spread. Get a min/midpoint/max band with BLS citation. Export to PDF and make your offer.
One Prevented Bad Hire Covers 28 Months of the Subscription
The minimum cost of a mis-priced offer at $5,600 (SHRM benchmark: 10% of a $56,000 trade wage) exceeds 28 months of the Essentials subscription at $199/month. Run our ROI calculator to see your specific number.
Try the Calculator- Trades hires per year
- 8
- Average wage
- $62,000
- Current benchmarking hours per hire
- 2.5
- Annual savings
- $4,560
Ready-to-use templates & tools
Excel workbook
Skilled Trades Salary Band Builder
$29
Excel workbook
Trades Hiring Cost Calculator
$39
PDF report
Skilled Trades Compensation Guide 2026
$49
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Start benchmarking trade wages in under 8 minutes.
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