Salaries for construction workers have seen a strong 5% increase in the last year, leading to an unprecedented $58,000 overall average nationally.
Those figures, just released by the Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP Research Institute, appear even stronger when compared with an overall salary median of $49,000 for all other industries combined.
The $58,000 figure is only the latest in a series of ever-increasing salary averages enjoyed by construction workers, according to the ADP report, noting that wages increased by a substantial 5% in June of this year over June of 2022.
That 5% growth rate is in contrast to an average 3.8% increase in all other industries combined for the last year.
“New construction hires–those who started at a new job within the last three months–had an average starting salary of $43,680, up 2.5% from a year earlier,” notes an ADP narrative accompanying the latest report.
The salaries for those new hires, continues the narrative, is markedly higher than the starting $35,360 salaries currently being offered in all other industries.
And while the 2.5% represents new hires wage growth, wage growth in the other industries has remained flat in the last twelve months.
The ADP report also notes how profitable it is today for construction workers to move around from one company to another: “In-demand workers can boost their pay a lot by switching employers.”
“Job changers in construction saw their pay rise by 14.6% year-over-year,” adds the narrative. That’ a significantly larger increase than the 11.2% wage gain secured by job changers in all industries.
The average $58,000 construction salary looks particularly startling when compared with where things were only four years ago. Then, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average was just under $36,900.
By Garry Boulard
