Plumber Pay After Inflation: Thirty-Five Years of Hourly Earnings in Real Dollars
The short answer
Hourly earnings for production workers at plumbing and HVAC contractors rose 174 percent between 1990 and 2025, from $14.41 to $39.52. After inflation the rise is 12.2 percent, and most of it came after 2019: from 1990 to 2019 real pay grew 4.2 percent, from 2019 to 2025 7.7 percent. Over the same 35 years real pay for all private-sector production workers rose 25.8 percent, so the trade’s wage premium shrank.
The short version
Plumber pay is routinely described as surging, usually on the strength of a nominal wage chart. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has tracked average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers at plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors every month since 1990. Deflated with the consumer price index BLS itself uses for that group of workers, the series tells a different story: three decades of almost flat real pay, a real gain since 2019, and a long relative decline against the rest of the private sector.
| Year | Nominal hourly | Real (2025 $) | All private, real | Premium over private |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | $14.41 | $35.22 | $24.93 | 41.3% |
| 1995 | $15.76 | $33.17 | $24.52 | 35.3% |
| 2000 | $18.77 | $35.04 | $26.16 | 33.9% |
| 2005 | $20.21 | $33.37 | $26.60 | 25.5% |
| 2008 | $22.86 | $34.15 | $26.98 | 26.6% |
| 2010 | $24.67 | $36.35 | $28.06 | 29.5% |
| 2015 | $26.10 | $35.49 | $28.60 | 24.1% |
| 2019 | $29.01 | $36.70 | $29.74 | 23.4% |
| 2020 | $30.96 | $38.69 | $30.86 | 25.4% |
| 2022 | $34.54 | $37.82 | $30.17 | 25.3% |
| 2024 | $37.89 | $38.84 | $30.88 | 25.8% |
| 2025 | $39.52 | $39.52 | $31.35 | 26.1% |
Source: BLS Current Employment Statistics, series CEU2023822008 and CEU0500000008 (average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees), annual averages of twelve months; deflated by the CPI-W annual average (CWUR0000SA0). Real values and premium calculated by The Plumbing Brief.
What the sources actually say
- Average hourly earnings, production and nonsupervisory employees, NAICS 238220: $14.41 in 1990, $29.01 in 2019, $39.52 in 2025. Source: BLS series CEU2023822008.
- Latest monthly value: $42.19 in August 2026 (preliminary). Source: BLS series CEU2023822008.
- Same measure, all private industry: $10.20 in 1990, $31.35 in 2025. Source: BLS series CEU0500000008.
- Same measure, all construction: $13.42 and $37.28. Electrical contractors (238210): $14.81 and $39.81. Source: BLS series CEU2000000008 and CEU2023821008.
- CPI-W annual average: 129.0 in 1990, 249.222 in 2019, 315.285 in 2025 (1982 to 84 = 100). Source: BLS series CWUR0000SA0.
- Average weekly hours, production workers at plumbing and HVAC contractors: 38.5 in 1990, 39.2 in 2025. Source: BLS series CEU2023822007.
- Average weekly earnings of those workers: $554.42 in 1990, $1,549.88 in 2025. Source: BLS series CEU2023822030.
- Median annual wage for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters (an occupation measure, all industries), May 2025: $63,800. Source: BLS OEWS.
Our checks
Nominal pay rose 174 percent; real pay rose 12.2
Formula. Real earnings = nominal annual average × (CPI-W 2025 ÷ CPI-W that year).
Calculation. 1990: $14.41 × 315.285 / 129.0 = $35.22. 2025: $39.52. Change: 12.2 percent.
Finding. Inflation absorbed all but about one fourteenth of the nominal increase. A worker in the trade in 2025 earns about $4.29 an hour more, in today’s money, than the 1990 equivalent.
Limitations. CPI-W is the index BLS uses to deflate production-worker earnings in its own real earnings releases. Using CPI-U instead gives a similar result; the CSV includes the deflator so either can be applied.
Real pay was nearly flat for three decades
Formula. Real earnings 1990 against 2019, and the lowest and highest years in between.
Calculation. $35.22 in 1990, $36.70 in 2019, a change of 4.2 percent. The real low was $33.02 in 1996; the high was $39.52 in 2025.
Finding. The rise since 2019, 7.7 percent in five years, is larger than the whole of the previous 29 years. It is the labour market tightening that the shortage reporting describes, but it is recent and modest, not a 35-year boom.
Limitations. 2020 shows a composition effect: when lower-paid workers lose jobs first, the average rises without anyone getting a raise. Part of the 2020 jump is that effect.
The trade’s premium shrank from 41 to 26 percent
Formula. Plumbing and HVAC production-worker hourly earnings divided by the all-private average.
Calculation. 1990: $14.41 / $10.20 = 1.413. 2025: $39.52 / $31.35 = 1.261.
Finding. Real pay for all private-sector production workers rose 25.8 percent over the period, more than twice the trade’s 12.2 percent. A trade job still pays more than the average private job, but by much less than it did in 1990, which is one plausible reason recruitment has been hard.
Limitations. The all-private average includes many low-wage service jobs whose relative pay rose after 2019. The comparison is of averages, not of matched workers.
The corrected figure to use
- Plumbing and HVAC production-worker pay rose 12.2 percent after inflation from 1990 to 2025, not 174 percent.
- Real pay rose 4.2 percent from 1990 to 2019 and 7.7 percent from 2019 to 2025.
- The trade’s premium over the average private job fell from 41 percent in 1990 to 26 percent in 2025.
- Average hourly earnings in 2025: $39.52; average weekly earnings: $1,549.88.
Download the data
Annual averages, CPI-W deflator, weekly hours and weekly earnings. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Attribution: The Plumbing Brief.
How this report was built
Methodology
Sources. BLS Current Employment Statistics series CEU2023822008, CEU2023822007, CEU2023822030, CEU0500000008, CEU2000000008, CEU2023821008; BLS Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, series CWUR0000SA0. Retrieved from the BLS LABSTAT bulk files on 4 October 2026.
Annual figures. Mean of twelve published monthly values. The CPI-W annual average is BLS’s published annual figure, which covers the October 2025 month that BLS did not publish separately.
Real values. Each year’s nominal earnings multiplied by the ratio of the 2025 CPI-W annual average to that year’s CPI-W.
Retrieval date. 4 October 2026.
Data limitations
- NAICS 238220 combines plumbing with heating and air conditioning. No federal earnings series separates them.
- CES measures payroll employees at establishments. Self-employed plumbers and owner-operators, often the highest earners, are excluded.
- Production and nonsupervisory workers exclude supervisors and managers. A plumbing company’s office staff and dispatchers are included.
- Average hourly earnings exclude benefits. Health and pension contributions, large in union shops, are not counted.
- Averages move with workforce mix. Hiring many apprentices pulls the average down without anyone’s pay falling.
- The OEWS occupation median quoted for context is a different measure, covering plumbers in every industry, and is not comparable year to year with CES.
Source quality ranking
Tier 1. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics and Consumer Price Index; Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for the context median.
Tier 2. None used. Tier 3. None used.
Excluded. Job-board salary estimates and self-reported pay surveys, which have no stated sampling frame.
Correction summary
Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers at US plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors rose from $14.41 in 1990 to $39.52 in 2025, a nominal increase of 174 percent, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Adjusted for inflation with the CPI-W, the increase is 12.2 percent. An analysis by The Plumbing Brief found that real pay was essentially unchanged from 1990 to 2019, rising 4.2 percent, and rose 7.7 percent from 2019 to 2025. Over the full period real pay for all private-sector production workers rose 25.8 percent, and the trade’s premium over the private-sector average narrowed from 41 percent to 26 percent.
How to frame it
- Plumber pay barely moved for 30 years, then rose after 2019
- After inflation, plumbing wages are up 12 percent since 1990
- The trade wage premium has been shrinking for a generation
- Why the shortage did not raise plumber pay until recently
- Plumbing pay: the nominal chart and the real one
Questions about the correction
Have plumber wages kept up with inflation? Just. Real hourly earnings for production workers at plumbing and HVAC contractors rose 12.2 percent between 1990 and 2025 in 2025 dollars, most of it after 2019.
How much do plumbing workers earn per hour? Production and nonsupervisory workers at plumbing and HVAC contractors averaged $39.52 an hour in 2025 and $42.19 in August 2026 (BLS CES).
How much have plumber wages gone up since 2019? Nominal pay rose 36.2 percent from $29.01 to $39.52. After inflation the rise is 7.7 percent.
Do plumbing workers earn more than average? Yes, but less so than before: 26 percent above the private-sector production-worker average in 2025, down from 41 percent in 1990.
How many hours a week do plumbing workers work? Production workers at plumbing and HVAC contractors averaged 39.2 hours a week in 2025, against 33.7 for all private production workers.
Why use CPI-W rather than CPI-U? CPI-W tracks prices for wage-earner households, and BLS uses it to deflate production-worker earnings in its own real earnings statistics.
Does this include self-employed plumbers? No. CES covers payroll employees only.
How to cite this report
The Plumbing Brief, “Plumber Pay After Inflation: Thirty-Five Years of Hourly Earnings in Real Dollars”, https://theplumbingbrief.com/plumber-pay-after-inflation/, accessed [date].
Last reviewed: 2026-10-04.
