Trade hub · BLS OEWS May 2025

Plumber

Assemble, install, alter, and repair pipelines or pipe systems that carry water, steam, air, or other liquids or gases. May install heating and cooling equipment and mechanical control systems. Includes sprinkler fitters.

National wage distribution. Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 (SOC 47-2152)

Where the pay is

The gap between states is wide: Illinois pays about 105% more than Arkansas at the median. Cost of living closes part of that gap. In licensed states the credential itself also travels differently across borders, which changes what a move is worth.

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 · licensing per state boards, verified July 2026

Outlook to 2034

BLS projects employment moving from 504,500 in 2024 to 527,200 in 2034 (+4.5%). Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Annual openings run near 44,000. That figure counts both new positions and replacements for workers leaving the occupation, which is why it exceeds the growth number. The 2024 figure here is larger than the employment count in the summary above because these are two different BLS programs: the summary counts jobs surveyed at employers, while the projections program also counts the self-employed, and this trade has a lot of them.

Licensing

36 states license plumbers statewide, 6 leave it to cities and counties, and 8 license only at the contractor level.

Comparing states rather than reading one at a time:

• Journeyman hour requirements in every state, each figure sourced to the board that publishes it
• Which states accept a license from where, taken from each board's own agreement list

Requirements by state

0 of the 48 state pages built for this trade are released so far, each with the board pages its facts came from and the date they were checked. The rest are written and go out in later waves. That includes states where the license is issued by cities rather than the state, and states that regulate only at the contractor level: those pages say so plainly and name the authority that decides, because "no state license" is itself the answer someone is looking for. 2 states are not in this table: Nevada, New York. Their records carry too little beyond the licensing model itself to make a page worth reading, so the model is shown in the comparison tables instead of being padded into a page.

Source: state licensing boards. Verified July 2026.

Price a credential with the license cost estimator, weigh training paths with the apprenticeship vs. school calculator, or set this trade against others in your state with the salary comparison.

Trades that pay similarly

Electrician at $63,190, Diesel Mechanic at $61,770, HVAC Technician at $61,010, Carpenter at $60,580. Full list on the trades index.