Plumber Salary Calculator

1. Leave the pay type on hourly rate and enter your rate. Choose annual salary for a salaried service manager or estimator role.
2. Enter regular hours, weeks worked, and the average overtime or call-out hours with the multiplier your employer pays.
3. Read your gross pay per year, month and week, then the BLS percentile. Enter a second offer to compare two jobs.

What each result tells you:

The default is the BLS median rate of $30.67 an hour, which comes to $63,793.60 for a 40 hour week over 52 weeks.

A plumber salary calculator is a tool that works out gross pay from a rate and a schedule, then measures the rate against official wage statistics for the trade.

The benchmark is the Bureau of Labor Statistics code 47-2152, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters. BLS says these workers install and repair piping fixtures and systems. Plumbers work on water, gas and drain systems in homes and businesses. Pipefitters and steamfitters work on pipes that carry chemicals, acids and gases, mostly in industrial settings. Sprinkler fitters are included too.

BLS reports all of them as one occupation. No separate national wage exists for plumbers alone, so every figure on this page covers the combined group.

Licensed plumbers use the tool to check a rate, apprentices use it to see fully trained pay, and people changing careers use it to compare offers. The tool adds no premium for license level, union status or service work. BLS publishes no national multipliers for those.

The calculator totals straight-time pay and overtime pay for the year, then finds where your base rate falls among the BLS wage percentiles.

1. Rate. The hourly rate is used directly. A salary is divided by regular hours times weeks.
2. Overtime. Overtime hours are paid at the rate times your multiplier. Federal law sets a minimum of time and one-half after 40 hours in a workweek for covered, nonexempt employees. The overtime pay calculator covers a single pay period in detail.
3. Periods. Monthly pay is the annual total divided by 12. Weekly pay is the annual total divided by weeks worked.
4. Benchmark. A rate of $36.00 falls between the median of $30.67 and the 75th percentile of $40.92. Interpolation puts it near the 63rd percentile.

BLS wages cover straight-time pay only. Overtime pay and on-call pay are excluded, which is why the percentile ignores your extra hours.

A service plumber earns $36.00 an hour for 40 hours a week, all year. His contract pays double time for emergency call-outs, and he averages 4 call-out hours a week.

1. Straight-time pay: $36.00 x 40 x 52 = $74,880.00.
2. Call-out rate: $36.00 x 2 = $72.00 an hour.
3. Call-out pay: $72.00 x 4 x 52 = $14,976.00.
4. Annual gross: $89,856.00. Monthly gross: $7,488.00. Weekly gross: $1,728.00.
5. Base rate against BLS: +$5.33 an hour over the median, or +17.4%.

At the federal minimum of time and one-half, the same call-out hours would pay $11,232.00. The double-time contract is worth $3,744.00 more a year. A full-time year at his base rate equals $74,880.00, which is the figure to set beside the BLS annual wages.

Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters earned a median of $30.67 an hour in May 2025, or $63,800 a year. The mean was $34.70 an hour, or $72,170 a year.

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 47-2152 Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters, national estimates. Read on 2026-10-02. BLS did not top-code any of these figures.

A plumber at the 75th percentile earns $34,920 a year more than one at the 25th percentile. That gap is larger than for carpenters or HVAC technicians.

Employer Type

Government employers paid a median of $71,660, the highest of the top industries. Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors paid $63,010 and employ 65 percent of the occupation.

Industrial Pipefitting

The highest hourly means are in research, refining and power generation, led by scientific research and development services at $53.31. These industries employ few workers in the occupation. BLS notes that pipefitters and steamfitters work mostly in manufacturing, commercial and industrial settings.

State

Oregon pays the highest state mean wage at $47.33 an hour. California has the most jobs in the occupation.

On-Call and Emergency Work

BLS notes that plumbers are often on call for emergencies and that night and weekend work is common. Federal law does not require premium pay for weekends as such. Extra pay depends on total weekly hours and on your contract.

License and Training Stage

Most states and some localities require plumbers to be licensed. BLS states that apprentices earn less than fully trained workers and that their pay increases as they learn to do more. BLS gives no wage by license level.

Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters have the highest median wage of the four trades, $610 a year above electricians. They also have the highest 10th percentile wage at $44,150.

The plumber median is $5,650 above the $58,150 median for all construction trades workers and 25.1 percent above the median for all occupations.

Comparing a Service Job with a Construction Job

Enter each rate with the weeks you expect to work. At 50 weeks, $37.50 an hour pays $7,000.00 more a year than $34.00 and moves the rate from the 58th to the 67th percentile.

Valuing an On-Call Rotation

Add your average call-out hours and the multiplier. The overtime pay per year shows what the rotation is worth before you agree to it.

Checking a Salaried Offer

A salary of $70,000 for a 45 hour week equals $29.91 an hour, near the 47th percentile. Set the regular hours to the hours you will really work.

Planning During an Apprenticeship

BLS says most apprenticeships last 4 or 5 years. Enter the 25th percentile and median rates to see the pay range that follows.

Plumbers need a high school diploma or equivalent and usually train through a 4 or 5 year apprenticeship. BLS says apprentices typically receive 2,000 hours of paid on-the-job training each year. Licensing often requires 2 to 5 years of experience and an exam.

BLS projects employment to grow 7 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations. That is 34,500 new jobs, for a total of 545,200.

About 42,000 openings are projected each year. Demand comes from new construction and from repair of existing systems. BLS expects sprinkler fitter jobs to grow because building codes require fire suppression systems.

Deciding between an apprenticeship and a degree? The trade school vs college calculator compares both paths.

1. Treating the BLS Figure as Plumbers Only

The data mixes plumbers with pipefitters and steamfitters. The national figures cannot be split by group.

2. Confusing Billing Rates with Wages

The hourly rate on a customer invoice is not the wage. Enter the rate on your pay stub.

3. Assuming Weekend Work Is Always Overtime

Federal overtime depends on hours over 40 in the workweek, not on the day. Check your contract for weekend premiums.

4. Dividing a Salary by 40 Hours When You Work 45

Longer weeks lower the real hourly rate. Enter true hours to get a fair percentile.

5. Adding Standby Pay to the Rate

A flat on-call payment is not part of the base rate. BLS excludes on-call pay from wages.

6. Using Owner Income as a Benchmark

The survey excludes self-employed plumbers. A business owner earns profit, not a wage.

The gross pay arithmetic is exact, and the benchmark is a sample estimate. BLS lists a relative standard error of 0.6 percent for the mean wage and 1.3 percent for employment in this occupation.

Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters earned a median of $30.67 an hour in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 25th percentile was $24.13 and the 75th percentile was $40.92.

The mean annual wage was $72,170 in May 2025, and the median was $63,800. BLS reports plumbers together with pipefitters and steamfitters, so the figure covers all three.

Some do. The 90th percentile annual wage is $108,420, so about one in ten employees in the occupation earns more than that before overtime. A base rate of $48.08 an hour reaches 100,000 dollars over 2,080 hours.

BLS publishes no wage for master plumbers. It reports one distribution for the whole occupation, with a 75th percentile of $85,110 and a 90th percentile of $108,420 a year.

Apprentices earn less than fully trained plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, and their pay increases as they learn to do more. BLS states this without a national figure. Your program sponsor publishes the actual wage steps.

Oregon has the highest mean wage at $47.33 an hour in the BLS May 2025 data. Illinois, New Jersey, the District of Columbia and Alaska follow.

Forty-five dollars an hour is high for the occupation. It sits near the 80th percentile nationally and equals $93,600.00 over a 2,080 hour year.

Federal law does not require extra pay for weekend work as such. It requires at least time and one-half for hours over 40 in a workweek for covered, nonexempt employees. Many employers pay a call-out premium by contract, so enter your own multiplier.

No. The survey covers wage and salary employees. BLS says 8 percent of the occupation is self-employed, and that income is not in the percentiles.

Yes. BLS projects 7 percent growth from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average, with about 42,000 openings each year.

• BLS OEWS Profiles, May 2025 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Choose May 2025 and select 47-2152 Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters for the national wage percentiles, mean wage, employment, and industry and state tables. Read 2026-10-02.
• BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Duties, entry education, training, median pay by industry and the 2025 to 2035 outlook. Read 2026-10-02.
• BLS OEWS frequently asked questions (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Defines wages as straight-time gross pay without overtime, the 2,080 hour year and who the survey covers. Read 2026-10-02.
• Overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division). Time and one-half the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek for covered, nonexempt employees. Read 2026-10-02.