Skilled Trades Wages in Chicago, IL: What Employers Are Paying

Chicago hands out some of the highest trade wages in the country — here's what that means for your next offer

You're sitting across from a journeyman pipefitter who knows exactly what his union brothers are clearing on the North Side. He tells you your number is low — and he's not bluffing. Chicago's skilled-trades labor market is one of the most unionized in the country, and that fact shapes every offer letter a specialty contractor sends, whether your crews are union, merit-shop, or open shop.

This guide gives you the framework for reading Chicago-area trade wages — what the BLS data structure looks like for this metro, how to pull the right numbers for each occupation, and what the national benchmarks tell you about where Chicago typically lands relative to the country. By the end, you'll know how to find the exact percentile figure for the offer you're pricing today.

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Why the Chicago MSA is its own wage market

When the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data, it breaks the country into metropolitan statistical areas — MSAs — rather than just states. Chicago's MSA is officially designated the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, and it is one of the largest in the country by total employment. That matters because wages inside a major metro can run meaningfully different from the Illinois state average or the national figure — in either direction.

If you're not sure what an MSA is and how it affects which wage figure to use for a specific hire, the guide to MSA wage data on this site walks through the mechanics in plain English. The short version: always pull the narrowest geography the BLS publishes for your actual work location — MSA first, state as a fallback, national only when the metro cell is suppressed.

One structural reality in Chicago: the metro's strong building-trades union presence means a larger share of trade workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements, and prevailing-wage projects (public construction under the Davis-Bacon Act) set a union-equivalent floor even for non-union shops bidding on those jobs. The Employment Cost Index shows union wages running ahead of non-union wages nationally — +4.3% year-over-year for union workers vs. +3.3% for non-union workers as of December 2025 (BLS Employment Cost Index, December 2025). In a metro as heavily organized as Chicago, that gap is felt on every bid.

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How to pull Chicago-specific wage figures from BLS OEWS

The BLS publishes metro-level OEWS tables at bls.gov/oes. For the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin MSA, navigate to the metro tables, select the most recent May reference-year release, and look up each occupation by its Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code — the six-digit number the BLS uses to identify every occupation. A SOC code is simply a standardized job label: 47-2111 for Electricians, 47-2152 for Plumbers, Pipefitters & Steamfitters, 49-9021 for HVAC Mechanics & Installers, and so on.

The OEWS tables show wages at the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentiles. The median (50th percentile) means half the workers in that occupation in that geography earn less and half earn more — it's your baseline anchor. The 75th percentile is where you go when you need to win a competitive hire; three out of four workers in that role earn less than that figure. The 25th percentile reflects entry-level or lower-experience pay; it can be useful as the floor of a salary band for a probationary or apprentice-level hire.

The BLS suppresses metro-level estimates when the sample is too small to meet publication standards — typically when estimated employment in a cell falls below roughly 10 workers. If a specific trade occupation shows no data for Chicago, fall back to the Illinois state OEWS table, then to the national figure. Always note which geography you're using when you anchor an offer.

The SOC codes you'll use most often for Chicago-area specialty contractor hiring:

Occupation	SOC Code
Electricians	47-2111
Plumbers, Pipefitters & Steamfitters	47-2152
HVAC Mechanics & Installers	49-9021
Welders, Cutters, Solderers & Brazers	51-4121
Carpenters	47-2031
Sheet Metal Workers	47-2211
Structural Iron & Steel Workers	47-2221

Pull the May 2024 (or May 2025 if the release is live) figures for each of these at the Chicago MSA level. Those are the numbers that belong in your offer-letter math. For the current live figures, go directly to bls.gov/oes.

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What the national benchmarks tell you — and their limits

Because the Chicago MSA figures require direct lookup at bls.gov/oes and vary by release year, the figures below are national BLS OEWS medians (May 2024) — presented here as reference anchors, not as Chicago rates. Chicago's metro figures for most of these trades run above the national median; confirm the exact gap for your trade and hire date with the metro table.

Electricians (SOC 47-2111): National median $62,350/yr; national 10th percentile $39,430; national 90th percentile $106,030 (BLS, May 2024, national). For Chicago-specific figures, see bls.gov/oes and the electrician salary guide on this site.

Plumbers, Pipefitters & Steamfitters (SOC 47-2152): National median $62,970/yr ($30.27/hr) (BLS, May 2024, national). One important provenance note: plumbing and pipefitting share a single BLS OEWS wage series under SOC 47-2152 — the BLS does not publish separate wage rows for plumbers vs. pipefitters. The pipefitter salary guide explains how to use O*NET to distinguish the occupational profiles while anchoring pay to the shared wage series.

HVAC Mechanics & Installers (SOC 49-9021): National median $59,810/yr; national 10th percentile $39,130; national 90th percentile $91,020 (BLS, May 2024, national). Chicago's HVAC market covers both commercial and residential systems; the commercial side, which tends to carry higher complexity and union density, often pushes metro figures above the national line.

Welders, Cutters, Solderers & Brazers (SOC 51-4121): National median $51,000/yr; national 10th percentile $38,130; national 90th percentile $75,850 (BLS, May 2024, national). Welding wages vary significantly by industry sector (structural vs. manufacturing vs. pipeline); the OEWS metro table reflects the mix of employers in the Chicago MSA.

Carpenters (SOC 47-2031): National median $59,310/yr ($28.51/hr) (BLS, May 2024, national). Chicago's building trades have historically bargained strong carpenter rates, particularly for commercial interior and framing work tied to the city's active high-rise market.

Sheet Metal Workers (SOC 47-2211): National median $60,850/yr ($29.26/hr) (BLS, May 2024, national). Sheet metal workers in Chicago are represented by SMACNA-affiliated contractors and local union agreements that typically set scale above the national average.

Structural Iron & Steel Workers (SOC 47-2221): National median $62,700/yr; national 10th percentile $42,000; national 90th percentile $107,520 (BLS, May 2024, national). Iron and steel work in Chicago is project-driven and highly skilled; the 10th-to-90th spread of roughly $65,000 reflects the experience and certification range across the workforce.

For the full Illinois state context alongside these trades, the Illinois skilled trades wages guide covers state-level figures and how they compare to the national picture.

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Building a salary band from Chicago percentile figures

Once you have the Chicago MSA percentile table in front of you, here is the method for turning those figures into an offer-ready salary band. This is a worked example using national May 2024 figures as stand-ins — replace the anchor with the actual Chicago metro median when you pull it.

Example: Journeyman Electrician, Chicago area

1. Set your anchor. Start with the 50th percentile (median) for your trade and geography. In this example, we'll use the national May 2024 median of $62,350 as a placeholder — your Chicago MSA figure will be higher; confirm it at bls.gov/oes.
2. Set the band floor (minimum). Apply a spread buffer below the median. A common approach for a journeyman-level band is 85% of the median anchor: $62,350 × 0.85 = $53,000 (rounded).
3. Set the band ceiling (maximum). Apply a spread buffer above the median, targeting the 75th percentile or a fixed percentage above mid. At 115% of median: $62,350 × 1.15 = $71,700 (rounded).
4. Result: Band min / midpoint / max = $53,000 / $62,350 / $71,700 (illustrative, using national anchor).

When you anchor the same formula on the actual Chicago MSA 50th percentile — which will reflect local union scale and cost-of-labor — your band shifts accordingly. The skilled trades wage benchmarking guide walks through the full methodology, including how to adjust for experience percentile and how to document the band rationale for your HR file.

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The demand context behind Chicago trade wages

Chicago's trade wage levels don't exist in a vacuum. The construction and extraction occupational group nationally employs roughly 649,300 workers in annual openings alone and is growing faster than average (BLS, 2024–34 projections). Electricians nationally are projected at +9% employment growth 2024–34, HVAC at +8% — both classified "much faster than average" (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–34). In a major metro with a dense commercial and industrial pipeline, that demand pressure is concentrated.

The workforce age dynamic compounds it. Roughly 1 in 5 construction workers is over age 55 (ABC), meaning retirements are pulling experienced journeymen out of the labor pool at the same time apprenticeship pipelines are working to catch up. The Registered Apprenticeship data gives a sense of the trajectory: completers who exit apprenticeship programs are entering the workforce at average starting wages above $70,000/yr nationally (DOL), and construction accounts for approximately half of all registered apprenticeship participation (GAO citing DOL). In Chicago, with its deep building-trades apprenticeship infrastructure, the completers entering your candidate pool are credentialed and wage-aware.

All of which means the candidate sitting across from you — or countering your offer by text — has done the math. Pricing offers from gut feel or the last hire's rate leaves you consistently behind the market. The trade wage data hub is a good starting point for seeing all the trades in one place.

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How to stay current on Chicago trade wages

BLS OEWS data is published annually, with each release covering a May reference date. The standard cycle means a May 2024 release becomes the authoritative benchmark until the May 2025 release is published. Metro-level tables can take a few weeks longer than national figures to appear after the release date.

For your workflow: bookmark the BLS OEWS area data page at bls.gov/oes, set a calendar reminder for the annual release (typically late March–April for the prior May reference year), and pull the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin MSA table for each SOC code relevant to your hiring plan. That annual refresh is the moment to update your salary bands — before you make the first offer of the new hiring season, not after you've already lost a candidate.

If pulling and interpreting raw BLS tab-delimited files isn't a productive use of your time, SkilledMarkets does that work for you — explore the features or check the pricing page to see whether a 14-day free trial makes sense for your team. Every percentile for every trade SOC is already loaded; you bring the geography and the offer.

This article includes information from O*NET OnLine, developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. O*NET is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.