Pipefitter & Steamfitter Salary Guide for Employers (47-2152)

The Hire That Almost Didn't Happen

You've got a steam-distribution retrofit starting in six weeks, and you just found your guy — certified pipefitter, five years of industrial experience, solid references. You send an offer. He comes back two days later asking for $4 an hour more, and mentions he's already talking to a competitor across town.

You don't know if his counter is reasonable. You don't know if your number was low to begin with. You don't know what "the market" actually pays for someone at his experience level in your area — and you definitely don't have time to dig through government spreadsheets to find out.

That's exactly what this pipefitter salary guide is for. Below you'll find the BLS wage picture for SOC 47-2152 (Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters), a plain-English breakdown of what the percentile data means for your next offer, the O*NET occupational profile that explains why this work commands the rate it does, and a worked example of how to build a salary band you can actually use.

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What BLS OEWS Pays for This Trade — and How to Read It

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey samples roughly 1.1 million establishments and produces the most statistically rigorous wage benchmarks available for U.S. employers — and it's public. Every number below comes from that dataset.

One thing to understand upfront: BLS OEWS reports pipefitters and steamfitters under a single wage series, SOC 47-2152 — "Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters." The BLS does not publish a separate wage row for pipefitters alone. That means you cannot, with BLS data alone, precisely isolate pipefitter-only rates from plumber rates within the same release. What you can do — and what this guide does — is use the 47-2152 series as your wage anchor and let the O*NET occupational profile (which does distinguish the roles at the detailed level) justify where in the percentile range a given pipefitter candidate sits.

National median annual wage (BLS, May 2024): $62,970/yr ($30.27/hr)

That's the midpoint of the 47-2152 distribution — half of all workers in this SOC earned more, half earned less. For an employer, the median is your baseline reality check: if your standing offer is meaningfully below this number for a journeyman-level hire, you are already pricing yourself out of half the market before the interview ends.

The OEWS also publishes data at the 10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentiles. The percentile tells you exactly where a given wage falls in the full distribution — the 75th percentile means three out of four workers in this occupation earn less than that figure. Percentiles are how you calibrate an offer to experience level: entry-level hires typically anchor near the 25th percentile; experienced journeymen land in the median-to-75th range; highly specialized or supervisory-track workers can justify the 90th.

The confirmed library figure for 47-2152 is the median and hourly rate above. If you need the full percentile column (10th through 90th), pull the current OEWS national data file directly at bls.gov/oes — it's a free Excel download, and the 47-2152 row will give you the complete spread. That spread is wide in this trade: the work ranges from residential rough-in at the lower end to high-pressure steam, cryogenic, and process-piping systems at the upper end, and the wage distribution reflects it.

Jobs and outlook (BLS OOH, 2024–34): 504,500 workers in this combined occupation nationally; projected growth of +4% through 2034; approximately 44,000 annual job openings. That's a steady hiring pipeline in a trade where experienced workers are not interchangeable — the candidate who counters your offer has options.

For state and metro-level medians — Houston, Chicago, the Gulf Coast industrial corridor, or wherever your shop operates — the national figure is your starting context, not your ceiling. Local rates can move substantially from the national median depending on regional labor demand, prevailing-wage rules, and local union density. Check your state's OEWS data at bls.gov/oes (select your state from the "May 2024 State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates" table), or use the metro-area files for a specific MSA. If a metro cell shows as suppressed (the BLS withholds estimates where sample size is too thin), fall back to the state figure and note it.

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The O*NET Profile: Why This Work Commands the Rate It Does

A wage number without context is just a number. The O*NET profile for pipefitters explains the skills and preparation behind the $62,970 median — and it's the document that helps you defend an above-median offer to your finance team when you need to win a competitive hire.

ONET uses detailed occupational codes that go one level below the BLS SOC. Within 47-2152, the relevant ONET-SOC codes include:

• 47-2152.01 — Plumbers — residential and light commercial plumbing systems, DWV and supply rough-in
• 47-2152.02 — Pipefitters — industrial and commercial piping systems, high-pressure steam, process piping, hydraulics
• 47-2152.03 — Pipelayers — underground pipe installation for water, sewer, and gas mains

If you're hiring for an industrial or commercial mechanical contractor — the employer profile this guide is written for — 47-2152.02 (Pipefitters) is almost certainly the role you're staffing. The work demands are distinct enough from residential plumbing that hiring managers sometimes inadvertently under-offer because they're anchoring on a generalist sense of "plumber wages" rather than the specialized industrial end of the distribution.

O*NET Job Zone: Pipefitters fall in Job Zone 3 — medium preparation needed. In plain English: this work typically requires vocational training, an apprenticeship (commonly 4–5 years of on-the-job learning combined with related technical instruction), and industry experience. It's not an entry-level role you can staff with a general laborer and a week of orientation. Candidates arrive with a training investment — and their compensation expectations reflect it.

Core tasks and knowledge areas that O*NET documents for pipefitters include: reading and interpreting blueprints and technical drawings; selecting and installing pipe, fittings, and valves for high-pressure and high-temperature applications; performing inspections and pressure tests; cutting, threading, and welding pipe; troubleshooting system failures; and adhering to applicable codes and safety regulations. The knowledge base spans mechanical systems, mathematics, physics (fluid dynamics, thermodynamics at the applied level), and safety compliance.

This task and knowledge complexity is why the wage distribution in 47-2152 skews higher than many other construction SOC codes — and why a pipefitter with industrial steam or process-piping credentials can legitimately counter above the national median.

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Building a Salary Band from the BLS Data

Knowing the median is the first step. Turning it into a salary band — the min, midpoint, and max that anchor your offer process — is where the data becomes a decision tool.

Here's a worked example. This is a method demonstration, not a claim about your specific market.

Anchor: $62,970 (BLS OEWS national median, May 2024, SOC 47-2152)

For a journeyman-level pipefitter role at a commercial or industrial contractor — someone with a completed apprenticeship and 3–6 years of experience — the median is a reasonable midpoint anchor. You'd then apply a spread buffer to define the min and max. A common SMB approach is ±15–20% from the midpoint.

Band Point	Calculation	Result
Band Min (entry of range)	$62,970 × 0.85	≈ $53,500
Band Midpoint (anchor)	$62,970	$62,970
Band Max (top of range)	$62,970 × 1.20	≈ $75,600

A candidate with 3–4 years of experience and a residential-to-light-commercial background might open at $55,000–$58,000. A candidate with 6+ years, industrial steam credentials, and a state journeyman license would justify $68,000–$73,000. Someone at the supervisory or specialist end of the distribution — code-certified, managing a crew on a process-piping shutdown — can push toward or past the 75th percentile.

Where to place a counter: If your candidate countered from $26/hr to $31/hr (the scenario from the opening), that's roughly $54,000 vs. $64,500 annualized. Against a national median of $62,970, his counter is within the median range for a fully qualified journeyman. Whether it's right for your market depends on your local OEWS data — but it's not an unreasonable ask.

For a deeper walkthrough of how to build bands across multiple trade roles and experience tiers, the Skilled Trades Wage Benchmarking Guide covers the full methodology. If you also staff welders, the Welder Salary Guide runs the same analysis for SOC 51-4121.

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How Pipefitter Wages Fit the Broader Construction Picture

The construction and extraction occupational group as a whole had a median of $58,360 in May 2024 — vs. $49,500 for all U.S. occupations. Pipefitters, at $62,970, sit above both benchmarks. That premium reflects the specialization, the licensing and apprenticeship requirements, and the demand curve: the industry needs an estimated 439,000 net new workers in 2025 alone (ABC), and pipefitters are a core part of that gap.

The employment cost index also matters for your multi-year budgeting: private-industry wages and salaries were running +3.4% year-over-year as of March 2026 (BLS ECI). If you set a band today anchored on May 2024 data, build in an annual review process — the market moves, and a band that was competitive last year can quietly become a retention risk this year.

For employers who also staff industrial maintenance roles — the overlap between pipefitting and maintenance millwright work in plant environments — the Industrial Maintenance Wage Benchmarking guide covers the adjacent SOC codes and where the wage ranges converge.

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What the SOC Code Structure Means for Your Hiring Records

A brief note on taxonomy: SOC codes — Standard Occupational Classification codes — are the government's way of grouping related jobs for statistical reporting. BLS OEWS reports wages at the SOC level (47-2152 for this entire group). ONET reports occupational profiles at the ONET-SOC level, which goes one level deeper (47-2152.02 for pipefitters specifically). When you're benchmarking a salary, you pull from BLS OEWS at 47-2152. When you're describing the job's skills, tasks, and Job Zone in a job description or compensation philosophy document, you reference the O*NET detail code.

They work together — neither replaces the other. If you want a plain-English guide to how the two systems relate, BLS SOC vs. O*NET SOC codes explained walks through the structure in about ten minutes of reading.

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Where to Get the Live Numbers

The figures in this guide are drawn from BLS OEWS May 2024 data — the most recent release confirmed at time of writing. The BLS publishes updated OEWS data annually. For the current release:

• National data: bls.gov/oes → "National" → download the all-sector XLS → find SOC 47-2152
• State data: same page → "State" → select your state
• Metro data: same page → "Metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas" → select your MSA

If you'd rather skip the spreadsheet work entirely, the SkilledMarkets 14-day free trial gives you the BLS percentile data for 47-2152 (and every other trade SOC code) with a salary-band generator that converts the percentiles into a min/midpoint/max band for your specific geography — no pivot tables required.

For a printable reference you can share with your hiring team, the Skilled Trades Compensation Guide 2026 (PDF) compiles trade wage benchmarks, percentile breakdowns, and band-building worksheets across the major construction and industrial SOC codes in one document.

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One More Tool in the Stack

The full benchmark picture for any hire in this trade sits at the intersection of two datasets: BLS OEWS for the wage data, ONET for the occupational profile. Both are free. The work — finding the right SOC row, pulling the percentile columns, joining it to the ONET profile, and translating all of it into an offer-ready band — is what SkilledMarkets is built to handle.

If you also staff plumbers under the same 47-2152 umbrella, the Plumber Salary Guide covers the residential and commercial end of that shared series. And the Trade Wage Data Hub is the starting point if you're benchmarking across multiple trade roles at once.

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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.