OEWS Ranked
Highest Paying Trade Jobs
Trade occupations — electricians, welders, mechanics, construction trades — combine strong mid-career pay with apprenticeship pathways that often skip a four-year degree. Figures below are OEWS employer-reported wages for the United States.
$291,342
Top mean wage
$200,284
List average
5
Occupations ranked
National ranking
Click any occupation for state-level salaries, percentiles, and real (cost-of-living adjusted) pay.
| $291,342 | $288,650 | $140 | 203,140 | |
| $253,639 | $243,730 | $122 | 277,770 | |
| $162,422 | $160,070 | $78 | 589,530 | |
| $151,056 | $146,080 | $73 | 74,570 | |
| $142,962 | $146,490 | $69 | 23,870 |
Methodology
Filtered to Construction & Extraction (SOC 47), Installation/Maintenance/Repair (49), Production (51), and Transportation (53) major groups with mean wage ≥ $55,000, ranked by national mean wage.
Full documentation: Wage Atlas methodology and data sources.