Mean vs Median Wage: Which One Should Drive Your Trade Offer?

Your Candidate Just Countered — and You're Not Sure Your Number Was Right

You posted the position, screened the résumés, and finally made an offer to the journeyman electrician you wanted. He came back with a counter that was $4 an hour higher than your number. You told him the average wage for electricians in your state is right around what you offered. He told you he'd done his research too.

Who had the right number?

Maybe neither of you — because the figure you probably both found was the mean (the mathematical average), and the mean for trade occupations can quietly overstate what most workers in that trade actually earn. This article explains the difference between mean and median wage, shows you exactly where the gap comes from, and tells you which one to anchor your next offer to — and when the other one is worth a look.

What "Mean" and "Median" Actually Mean (and Why They're Not the Same)

Mean wage (also called average wage) is calculated the same way you averaged grades in school: add up every reported wage in the dataset and divide by the number of workers. It's intuitive, but it has a flaw — it's sensitive to outliers. One master electrician running a high-voltage specialty firm and billing out at $120 an hour can pull the average meaningfully upward, even if nine other electricians in the same sample earn much less.

Median wage is the middle value when you rank every reported wage from lowest to highest. Half the workers earn above it; half earn below it. When BLS reports the median, they're giving you the 50th percentile — the exact midpoint of the actual distribution. Because it's positional rather than arithmetic, a handful of very high earners can't move it much.

For trade occupations, where a relatively small group of specialty, supervisory, or highly unionized workers can earn dramatically more than the journeyman-level majority, this difference matters a lot.

See It in Action: A Simple Five-Worker Example

Imagine a crew of five electricians with annual wages of $45,000 — $52,000 — $58,000 — $61,000 — $142,000.

• Mean: ($45,000 + $52,000 + $58,000 + $61,000 + $142,000) ÷ 5 = $71,600
• Median: The middle value is $58,000

The mean is $13,600 higher than the median — not because most workers earn that much, but because one high earner pulled the average up. If you anchored your offer to the mean, you'd be pitching a number that overstates what the typical person in that role earns. The candidate who knows the median might feel you're being generous; the candidate who only knows the mean might feel you're low.

Neither conversation goes well.

What BLS OEWS Reports — and Where to Find Both Numbers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program — the same dataset that powers the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — publishes both mean and median wages for hundreds of occupations. The OEWS is built from a sample of approximately 1.1 million establishments and covers more than 800 detailed occupations across national, state, and metropolitan area geographies (BLS).

For most trade SOC codes — SOC stands for Standard Occupational Classification, BLS's system for grouping job types — you'll find the May 2024 figures look something like this:

• Electricians (SOC 47-2111): median $62,350/yr; mean wage is also published but runs higher, pulled up by master electricians, estimators, and specialty-installation roles (BLS, May 2024). Always confirm the current figure at bls.gov/oes.
• HVAC mechanics & installers (SOC 49-9021): median $59,810/yr (BLS, May 2024). Same dynamic applies — the mean sits above the median.
• Welders, cutters, solderers & brazers (SOC 51-4121): median $51,000/yr (BLS, May 2024).

The gap between mean and median is consistent across trade occupations and consistently runs in the same direction: mean higher, median lower. That's the signature of a right-skewed distribution — most workers clustered at moderate wages, a tail of high earners stretching the average upward.

To pull both numbers for any trade SOC code at national, state, or metro level, go to bls.gov/oes and run the occupation search directly. Our guide to reading BLS OEWS data for trade employers walks you through the interface step by step.

Which One Should Drive Your Trade Offer?

Start with the median. For a standard journeyman or experienced-level hire — the kind of offer you make most often — the median is your honest market anchor. It tells you what the typical worker in that trade actually earns, not what the distribution looks like once you add in a layer of specialty and supervisory roles that don't match your open position.

Using the median also reduces the risk of anchoring your offer band too high at the outset. If your standard journeyman offer is pegged to the mean and the mean is inflated by a segment of workers your candidate will never overlap with, you're either overpaying relative to market or — more likely — you've set a mental anchor that makes competitive-but-realistic numbers feel low to the candidate.

When does the mean matter? The mean wage is useful in two situations:

1. Budgeting and cost modeling. If you're projecting total payroll for a new service line, the mean gives you a conservative (higher) ceiling estimate. Planning to the mean won't leave you short.
2. Hiring for a specialist or senior role. If the position really does sit in the upper distribution — a licensed master electrician, a lead pipefitter with ASME certification, a welder who runs your highest-complexity fabrication — glancing at the mean tells you the market has a significant premium tier. You'll want to look at the 75th and 90th percentiles directly alongside it. Our wage percentiles explained guide covers this in detail.

For most offers, though — especially the journeyman and experienced-level hires that make up the bulk of trade contractor hiring — the median is the number you build from.

Mean vs Median Wage in Practice: Building the Anchor

Here's a quick worked example using the May 2024 OEWS national median for electricians as a starting point (BLS, May 2024 — confirm the current figure at bls.gov/oes before using):

• Median anchor: $62,350/yr ≈ $30.00/hr
• Band min (–10% spread buffer): ≈ $56,115/yr ≈ $27.00/hr (entry or lower-experience end of your target range)
• Band max (+15% spread buffer): ≈ $71,703/yr ≈ $34.47/hr (senior or high-competition end)

This is a worked illustration of a methodology — your actual band should reflect your local market rate, not the national figure. Run the same math against your state or metro median at bls.gov/oes, or use the SkilledMarkets salary band generator to pull the percentile anchors and generate the band in a few minutes instead of a spreadsheet session.

For a deeper look at how to pick the right percentile for different hiring situations — whether to anchor at the 50th, 65th, or 75th — see which percentile should you pay. And if you want a complete framework for benchmarking wages across all the trades your company hires for, the skilled trades wage benchmarking guide is the place to start.

The Short Version

Mean and median wage both live in BLS OEWS, and both are worth knowing. But they answer different questions:

• Median = what the typical worker in this trade earns → your offer anchor
• Mean = what the average looks like once high earners are folded in → useful for budgeting and senior-role context

Use the wrong one and you'll anchor offers to a number that doesn't reflect the real market for the workers you're actually trying to hire. Use the right one and your first number lands closer to where the negotiation should end.

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