Construction Labor Rates by State (2026): Median Hourly Wage by Trade

A national average labor rate is wrong almost everywhere. An electrician in Mississippi and an electrician in Illinois do the same work, but the wage you have to budget can differ by more than $20 an hour. If you estimate with a single national number — the way most cost databases and national estimating tools do — you either overprice and lose the bid, or underprice and eat the difference on your own crew. This guide gives you the real, current construction labor rates by state, trade by trade, straight from federal wage data — and shows how to turn a wage table into a bid that reflects your market.

Price your labor with local rates, not a national average. OneEstimate builds every estimate on real local costs for your state and city. Start free and see your first estimate priced for where you actually build.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure below is the median hourly wage reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program (May 2024 release, the most recent available). Median means half of workers in that trade and state earn more, half earn less — a more realistic planning number than the mean, which a handful of very high earners can distort.

Two things to keep in mind before you drop these into a bid:

This is the wage paid to the worker, not your loaded cost. Your true cost of labor adds payroll taxes, workers' compensation, general liability, and benefits. That burden typically runs 1.3–1.6× the base wage, and it is higher in states with expensive workers' comp. A $30/hour electrician can cost your company $40–48/hour fully loaded.

State is the starting point, not the finish line. Within a state, metro labor (Miami, San Francisco, New York City) runs well above the rural rate. Use the state figure as your baseline and adjust up for high-cost metros.

Construction labor rates by state — median hourly wage, 2026

The table below covers all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and the eight trades that drive most construction labor budgets. All figures are median hourly wage (USD).

National median by trade (all states)

What the spread actually looks like

The gap between states is large enough to swing a bid. Electricians range from about $23.59/hour in Arkansas to $48.71/hour in Oregon — a spread of more than $25 an hour on a single trade. Construction laborers run from roughly $17.74/hour in Alabama to $37.07/hour in Hawaii. Plumbers and pipefitters span $23.39 to $48.57/hour (Arkansas to District of Columbia).

Now multiply that across a full crew and a multi-week schedule. A national-average labor rate that is $8/hour too low on four trades, across 3,000 crew-hours, is a five-figure hole in your bid before you have priced a single material. That is the exact error a local-cost estimate removes.

Stop guessing your labor burden. OneEstimate applies local labor rates and your markup line by line, so the number you bid is the number you can build for. Try it free.

From a wage table to a real bid

A wage table tells you what one hour of one trade costs. A bid needs quantities × productivity × loaded rate × markup, across dozens of line items. Doing that by hand in a spreadsheet is where errors and lost evenings live. This is what local construction cost data software is built for: it holds real local labor and material costs, applies them to the quantities you measured, and lets you set markup by line item so your margin is protected before the proposal goes out.

OneEstimate combines all of it in one cloud tool — AI takeoff, local cost pricing, and one-click bid export — so a labor rate like the ones above flows straight into a priced, itemized estimate instead of living in a static table. See the full platform on the construction estimating software page.

National averages vs local cost data

Build your first local-cost estimate free. Upload a plan, measure, and price it with rates for your state. Get started.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the average construction labor rates by state in 2026?

They vary widely by trade and state. As a national baseline (BLS OEWS median hourly wage): construction laborers about $23.03/hour, carpenters $28.54, electricians $31.16, plumbers $30.72, and construction supervisors $37.87. High-wage states run well above these; lower-cost states run below. Use the state table above for your specific market, then add labor burden to get your true cost.

Are these labor rates my actual cost as a contractor?

No. These are the median wages paid to workers. Your loaded cost adds payroll taxes, workers' compensation, liability insurance, and benefits — typically 1.3–1.6× the base wage. A $30/hour tradesperson can cost your company roughly $40–48/hour fully loaded, and more in high-insurance states. OneEstimate lets you apply that burden and your markup line by line.

Which states have the highest construction labor rates?

The highest-wage states cluster in the Northeast, the West Coast, and around major metros. For example, electricians reach about $48.71/hour (median) in Oregon, while the lowest states sit near $23.59/hour. The pattern holds across most trades: higher cost-of-living states pay more, and large metros within any state pay a premium over the state median.

Why can't I just use a national average labor rate?

Because a national average is wrong almost everywhere. National cost databases blend high- and low-wage markets into one number that matches no actual jobsite. Estimating shows this can be off by 20–40% for a specific city. Bidding on a blended national rate means you overprice in low-cost markets (and lose) or underprice in high-cost markets (and lose margin). Local rates fix both.

How do I turn these rates into a construction bid?

Take off your quantities, apply a productivity rate to get crew-hours, multiply by the loaded local labor rate, add materials and equipment, then apply markup by line item. Doing this by hand is slow and error-prone. OneEstimate automates it: measure on-screen, and quantities are priced with local labor and material costs, with markup applied per line — then export the bid as a PDF or Excel proposal.

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