Trade Salaries answers one question for people in or near the skilled trades: what does this work pay where I live, and what does it cost to get there? We cover electricians, welders, plumbers and pipefitters, HVAC techs, linemen, mechanics, truck drivers, crane operators and more, with pay from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and training rules from the programs and boards that set them.
What we do
- Pay for 30 trades, from the state line down to the metro. Every salary is a BLS OEWS May 2025 estimate (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentile) for electricians, welders, plumbers, HVAC technicians, power-line installers, diesel and auto mechanics, heavy truck drivers, carpenters, elevator mechanics and trade helpers, for the nation, every state plus DC and each metro or nonmetro area, as published through O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor.
- Calculators you can check. The salary, overtime, take-home, comparison, apprentice-pay, license-hours and payback tools show their inputs and formulas; the overtime, apprentice ladder and 2026 federal tax math (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32) each have hand-checked test cases that run before every release.
- Apprenticeship records, not brochures. Program length, hours, journey rates and completion rates come from registered-program listings; license, EPA refrigerant, crane and CDL rules are summarized from the eCFR, the U.S. Department of Labor, FMCSA, EPA and state licensing boards, linked and dated.
- Nothing to sell you. We do not run a school, take referral fees from unions or trucking schools, or pass your details to recruiters.
Who we are
Trade Salaries is put together by a small independent desk in Türkiye that reads BLS tables, apprenticeship standards and state license rules so that a first-year apprentice does not have to. We are not affiliated with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor, FMCSA, EPA, any state licensing board, any union or joint apprenticeship committee, any school, carrier or employer.
How the site is funded
Display ads from Google AdSense pay the bills. They sit beside the tables, never inside a calculator result, and no advertiser picks which trades, states or programs we write about.
How we pick sources and check the math is on the editorial policy page; the limits of the numbers are on the disclaimer; what we collect is on the privacy policy. Corrections go through the contact page.