Structural Iron & Steel Worker Salary Guide for Employers (SOC 47-2221)

The Counter That Changes the Hire

Your ironworker candidate just countered your offer. He's got a decade working structural steel on commercial high-rises, holds his OSHA-30, and his foreman speaks highly of him — and he wants more than you put on the table. You have thirty seconds to decide whether to move up, hold, or lose him to the competitor two projects down the road.

That moment — the counter, the pause, the gut-feel number — is exactly where this ironworker salary guide is meant to help. Not after the hire, when the number is locked in. Right now, before you answer.

This guide gives you the BLS-grounded wage picture for structural iron and steel workers (SOC 47-2221), walks you through what those percentile figures actually mean for your next offer, and shows you how to convert them into a working salary band your whole team can use.

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What BLS Tells Us About Ironworker Wages in 2024

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program surveys roughly 1.1 million establishments to produce the wage benchmarks that underpin every responsible offer in the skilled trades. Here is what those benchmarks show for structural iron and steel workers (SOC 47-2221) as of the May 2024 release — the most recent data in our verified library. Always confirm the current figure at bls.gov/oes, as annual updates may post after this article's publish date.

Percentile	Annual Wage (May 2024, National)
10th percentile	$42,000
Median (50th)	$62,700
90th percentile	$107,520

A quick plain-English note on percentiles: the 50th percentile (median) means half of all workers in the role earn less than this figure and half earn more. The 90th percentile — $107,520 — means that 9 out of 10 structural ironworkers nationally earn less than that; it's where your very best, most specialized talent tends to land.

Jobs and outlook. The BLS projects +4% employment growth for structural iron and steel workers through 2034, in line with the overall construction average, with approximately 7,000 annual job openings expected each year. That's a market where demand is steady but supply of qualified ironworkers remains tight — a combination that puts upward pressure on competitive offer rates. (Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, bls.gov/ooh)

Related specialty: reinforcing iron and rebar workers. If your workforce includes rebar crews, note that BLS tracks them separately. Reinforcing iron and rebar workers show a national median of $59,280/yr, a 10th percentile of $39,470, and a 90th percentile of $95,530 (BLS, May 2024, national). Same OOH source page as structural ironworkers — two distinct wage series, two distinct offers.

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What These Numbers Mean When You're Making an Offer

The percentile table above is a snapshot of the national market. Your offer lives in a specific geography, on a specific project type, competing against a specific pool of contractors. Here is how to read the table with that reality in mind.

The median is your floor for experienced journeymen, not your ceiling. A median of $62,700 means half the market already pays more than that. If you are hiring a journeyman with five or more years on structural steel and you open at or below the median, you are effectively starting the negotiation at or below market. That is fine if you have strong benefits, reliable year-round work, or a compelling project portfolio — but go in with eyes open.

The 10th percentile ($42,000) is an entry anchor, not a journeyman rate. This end of the range reflects new entrants — apprentices transitioning to journeyman status, workers in lower-wage geographies, or roles with limited scope. Using it for an experienced structural ironworker invite a counter or a rejection.

The 90th percentile ($107,520) is real — and earnable. Ironwork at the top of the range typically means structural high-rise, complex industrial, or bridge and highway steel — roles that demand certified welding skills, crane rigging competency, and years of working at height. If a candidate genuinely brings that profile, the number is defensible.

Local rates differ from national figures. The BLS publishes state-level and metropolitan-area OEWS data for SOC 47-2221, and local medians can differ meaningfully from the national figures above — high-cost metros and strong union markets often run well above the national median. Our verified library does not carry specific state or metro medians for this trade; pull those directly at bls.gov/oes by selecting the SOC code, your state, and your metro area. Never apply the national median as a local rate — it can send your offer in the wrong direction.

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The O*NET Profile: What You're Actually Hiring For

Wages tell you what the market pays. The ONET profile for structural iron and steel workers (ONET-SOC 47-2221.00) tells you what makes the role hard — and why the pay is where it is.

Job Zone: 3 — meaning the occupation typically requires medium preparation: one to two years of related work experience, some post-secondary coursework or vocational training, and on-the-job training. In practice, most structural ironworkers enter through a multi-year Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) that includes paid on-the-job hours alongside classroom instruction. Per the electrician apprenticeship benchmark in O*NET's own documentation, trade apprenticeships routinely run three to four years — ironworker programs are similarly structured.

Core tasks O*NET identifies for this occupation include:

• Reading and interpreting blueprints, sketches, and erection drawings to determine the sequence of work
• Connecting steel columns, beams, and girders with bolts and welds according to rigging plans
• Operating cranes, hoisting equipment, and signaling crane operators during steel placement
• Aligning structural components using levels, plumb bobs, and alignment instruments
• Cutting, bending, and welding steel members as needed during erection

Key skills and knowledge areas O*NET associates with this work: equipment operation and control, critical safety awareness, physical stamina and coordination, blueprint reading, and basic welding. Many ironworkers carry dual competencies — structural erection and ornamental or reinforcing work — which is why a candidate's specific experience type matters when you're anchoring an offer.

Why this profile shapes your offer: A candidate who brings verified crane rigging certification, journey-level weld quality, and a track record of complex high-rise steel commands a different offer than someone fresh out of apprenticeship stepping onto their first structural job. The O*NET profile gives you the framework to ask the right questions before you set the number.

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

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From Percentile to Salary Band: A Worked Example

A percentile table is useful. A salary band — a structured min/midpoint/max range tied to experience — is what you actually put in front of a candidate. Here is how to build one from the BLS figures above.

This is a worked example using the May 2024 national median as an anchor. Adjust the anchor for your local OEWS data and your own spread buffer.

Step 1 — Set your midpoint. Start with the BLS national median for SOC 47-2221: $62,700. If your local OEWS data shows a higher metro median, use that instead.

Step 2 — Apply a spread buffer. A common approach for skilled trades is ±15–20% around the midpoint to create the min and max. Using ±17%:

Band Position	Calculation	Result
Minimum	$62,700 × 0.83	~$52,000
Midpoint	$62,700	$62,700
Maximum	$62,700 × 1.17	~$73,400

Step 3 — Sanity-check against percentiles. Your band minimum ($52,000) sits comfortably above the 10th percentile ($42,000) — good, it's not an apprentice rate. Your maximum ($73,400) is below the 75th percentile of the market, which is a signal: if you're hiring experienced journeymen in a competitive metro, you may want to slide the midpoint up to the 75th percentile instead. That's the adjustment the data lets you make consciously, rather than discovering it when a candidate counters.

Step 4 — Set your entry, journey, and senior anchors. Map roles within the band: apprentice/entry near the minimum, journeyman near the midpoint, lead or senior ironworker approaching the maximum or above it.

For a deeper walkthrough of this methodology — including how to handle suppressed metro cells and union vs. non-union differentials — see our guide to building salary bands for trade roles. And if you want the full percentile picture across the dozen or so trades your firm touches, our skilled trades wage benchmarking guide covers the methodology end-to-end.

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The Cost of Getting the Number Wrong

The stakes of a mis-priced ironworker offer are real — and they run in both directions.

Offer too low and the candidate walks. With BLS projecting steady demand and roughly 7,000 annual openings in this trade (BLS, OOH), qualified structural ironworkers have options. A low offer doesn't just lose this hire — it can cost you referrals and reputation in a trade community where everyone knows everyone.

Offer too high relative to your existing crew and you create compression. If your journeyman ironworkers who have been with you three years find out the new hire started above their rate, retention becomes the problem instead of recruitment.

The re-hire cost is not trivial. SHRM research puts the cost of replacing an employee at 50%–200% of annual salary — for a $62,700 ironworker, that's a modeled range of roughly $31,000–$125,000 to find, recruit, onboard, and bring a replacement to full productivity. These are SHRM-benchmarked illustrative figures; your actual cost depends on your market, your project timelines, and your recruiting approach. But they illustrate why a $500 salary-band mistake is not a $500 problem.

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What to Look at Alongside This Guide

Ironwork does not happen in isolation. If your firm runs mixed crews — ironworkers alongside welders, sheet metal crews, or equipment operators — your comp structure needs to be internally consistent across those roles, not just accurate for one.

A few related reads that cover adjacent trades in the same BLS framework:

• Welders (SOC 51-4121): national median $51,000/yr (BLS, May 2024) — a common dual-skill trade with ironworkers. See our welder salary guide for the full percentile breakdown.
• Sheet metal workers (SOC 47-2211): national median $60,850/yr (BLS, May 2024). See our sheet metal worker salary guide.
• The full trade wage picture: our trade wage data hub aggregates the BLS data across all major specialty trade SOC codes in one place.

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Your Next Step: Lock In the Right Number Before the Counter

You do not want to figure out the right ironworker salary band in the moment a candidate counters. You want to walk into that conversation with a range you built from the actual BLS percentiles for your metro — one that accounts for experience level, union status, and what your crew is already earning.

The Skilled Trades Compensation Guide 2026 (PDF) gives you the BLS-grounded percentile tables for structural iron and steel workers, rebar workers, welders, and a dozen other specialty trade SOC codes in a single reference document — ready to share with your HR manager, office manager, or whoever is putting the offer together.

If you want to run those percentiles against your specific metro, generate a salary band, and pull the ONET profile in one workflow, SkilledMarkets is built for exactly that. Our platform pulls the BLS OEWS data and ONET profiles for every trade SOC code — including 47-2221 — and runs the band math so you are not doing it in a spreadsheet the night before an offer goes out. See our pricing or start a free 14-day trial — no credit card required, no free tier to outgrow.

The next counter does not have to be a surprise.