How much does a plumber make per hour in the US?

The BLS median for Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters is $30.67/hr as of 2025. The middle half of the trade earns between $24.13/hr (25th percentile) and $40.92/hr (75th percentile). The mean is pulled higher, to $34.70/hr, by top earners.

Why does a plumber charge $100 an hour when they only earn $30?

The $100 is not the plumber's paycheck. It covers payroll taxes, workers' comp, liability insurance, a truck, tools, office time and profit, on top of the wage. A 2x to 3x multiplier on a $30.67/hr median wage lands between $61.34/hr and $92.01/hr, which is close to what many billed rates land on.

Is a $150 an hour plumbing quote too high?

At a 2x burden multiplier, $150/hr implies a $75/hr wage, almost double the BLS 75th percentile of $40.92/hr. Even at a 3x multiplier the implied wage is $50/hr, still above the 75th percentile. That does not make the quote fraudulent, but it is worth asking what the multiplier covers.

Why did my plumber say material prices jumped this year?

The Producer Price Index for primary nonferrous metals, which includes copper pipe and fittings, rose 52.8% year over year to 542.853 in July 2026. Plastic construction products, used for PVC and PEX, rose a more modest 5.0% over the same period.

How much higher is the mean wage than the median, and what does that gap tell you?

BLS reports a mean of $34.70/hr against a median of $30.67/hr — a $4.03/hr gap, or 13.1% higher. Any quote that treats $34.70/hr as the 'typical' wage is already citing a figure above what half the trade actually earns.

How much more does a 75th-percentile plumber bill than a 25th-percentile plumber at the same multiplier?

At a 2.5x multiplier, a 25th-percentile plumber ($24.13/hr) bills out at $60.33/hr, while a 75th-percentile plumber ($40.92/hr) bills out at $102.30/hr — a $41.97/hr gap, or 69.6% higher. Skill and licensing tier moves the bill more than the multiplier choice does.

What Plumbers Earn, and What You Actually Get Billed

A plumber in the United States earns a median $30.67/hr, but the bill you receive runs $61 to $92 an hour for that same worker once payroll tax, insurance, vehicles and overhead are added on top. The gap is not profit padding by default. It is the cost of running a licensed trade business, applied as a 2x to 3x multiplier on the wage.

Key points

BLS puts the 2025 median wage for Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters at $30.67/hr nationally, with a 25th-to-75th percentile spread of $24.13/hr to $40.92/hr.
A standard 2x to 3x burden multiplier, applied to that median wage, produces a billed labor rate of $61.34/hr to $92.01/hr — this multiplier is an assumption, not a measured figure.
A supervised or specialty job with a crew lead (median $38.42/hr) billed 8 hours at 2x to 3x runs $1,105 to $1,658 in labor alone, before materials.
Copper and other nonferrous metal prices are up 52.8% year over year (PPI, July 2026); plastic pipe and fitting materials are up a much smaller 5.0%.
This data is national only. The BLS OEWS series supplied has no metro-level breakout, so no city-to-city comparison is made here — flagging that gap is more honest than inventing one.

Close-up of a plumber installing a radiator pipe using specialized tools.

What Does a Plumber Actually Earn?

The BLS OEWS survey tracks wages paid to workers, not prices billed to customers, across 465,840 employed plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters nationally in 2025.

Stainless steel kitchen sink and faucet against marble backsplash in a modern kitchen.

Percentile	Hourly wage
25th percentile	$24.13
Median	$30.67
Mean	$34.70
75th percentile	$40.92
Crew supervisor (median, Construction Trades Supervisors)	$38.42

The mean sits above the median because a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. If someone quotes you a “typical plumber wage” above $40.92/hr, they are already past the 75th percentile.

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook covers duties and entry requirements for this occupation but does not publish a metro-level wage breakdown in the data pulled for this article, so this piece stays at the national level throughout.

Why Is the Bill 2 to 3 Times the Wage?

The wage above is what lands in the plumber’s pocket. What you pay covers that wage plus payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, liability insurance, vehicle and fuel costs, tools, office and scheduling time, warranty reserve, and profit margin.

Close-up of urban pipe installation at a construction site, showing various pipes and materials.

There is no federal series that measures this markup directly, so the industry convention of a 2x to 3x multiplier on wage is used here as a stated assumption, not a measured number. Anything outside that range is a guess this site will not make.

Multiplier	Median wage ($30.67) billed	Mean wage ($34.70) billed
2.0x	$61.34/hr	$69.40/hr
2.5x	$76.68/hr	$86.75/hr
3.0x	$92.01/hr	$104.10/hr

Full Multiplier Matrix Across Wage Percentiles

The two-column table above only covers median and mean. Widening it to the 25th and 75th percentile shows the full spread a customer could legitimately be billed under the same 2x-3x assumption, depending purely on which wage tier the assigned plumber sits in.

Multiplier	25th pct ($24.13)	Median ($30.67)	Mean ($34.70)	75th pct ($40.92)
2.0x	$48.26/hr	$61.34/hr	$69.40/hr	$81.84/hr
2.5x	$60.33/hr	$76.68/hr	$86.75/hr	$102.30/hr
3.0x	$72.39/hr	$92.01/hr	$104.10/hr	$122.76/hr

Two quotes that look wildly different — say $48/hr and $123/hr — can both be internally consistent, if one reflects a 25th-percentile plumber at 2.0x and the other a 75th-percentile specialist at 3.0x. The wage tier moves the number as much as the multiplier does.

What Would You Be Billed for a Job of Any Size?

Every job scales off the same base rate. This table sweeps labor hours from a quick repair to a full workweek re-pipe, at the median wage, across the 2x to 3x multiplier range. Materials are not included — there is no dollar figure for materials in the source data, only a price-index trend, covered below.

Job length (hours)	Billed labor at 2.0x	Billed labor at 2.5x	Billed labor at 3.0x
1	$61.34	$76.68	$92.01
2	$122.68	$153.36	$184.02
4	$245.36	$306.72	$368.04
8	$490.72	$613.44	$736.08
16	$981.44	$1,226.88	$1,472.16
24	$1,472.16	$1,840.32	$2,208.24
40	$2,453.60	$3,067.20	$3,680.40

Find your job’s estimated hours in the left column. That row is the labor-only range, before parts, permits or any of the complications covered below.

Job Cost By Worker Skill Level

The table above holds the wage tier fixed at the median and sweeps hours. Holding the multiplier fixed at 2.5x and sweeping the wage tier instead shows how much the assigned plumber’s experience level moves the same job:

Job length (hours)	25th pct plumber ($24.13/hr)	Median plumber ($30.67/hr)	75th pct plumber ($40.92/hr)
1	$60.33	$76.68	$102.30
2	$120.65	$153.36	$204.60
4	$241.30	$306.72	$409.20
8	$482.60	$613.44	$818.40
16	$965.20	$1,226.88	$1,636.80
24	$1,447.80	$1,840.32	$2,455.20
40	$2,413.00	$3,067.20	$4,092.00

At 40 hours, the spread between a 25th-percentile and 75th-percentile plumber is $2,413.00 to $4,092.00 — a $1,679 difference driven entirely by wage tier, with the multiplier held constant. That is a bigger swing than choosing 2.0x versus 3.0x on a single median-wage plumber.

How Does Crew Size Change the Bill?

A single plumber and a two-person crew with a supervisor produce very different totals for the same 8-hour job. This crosses wage tier against crew size to show how much crew composition moves the number.

Crew	Hours	Unburdened wage cost	Billed at 2.0x	Billed at 2.5x	Billed at 3.0x
1 plumber (median wage)	8	$245.36	$490.72	$613.44	$736.08
1 plumber + 1 supervisor	8 each	$552.72	$1,105.44	$1,381.80	$1,658.16

The math: 1 plumber at $30.67/hr × 8 hrs = $245.36 unburdened. Adding a supervisor at $38.42/hr × 8 hrs = $307.36 brings the combined unburdened total to $552.72, before either multiplier is applied. A job that needs a second set of hands or a supervising lead roughly doubles the labor line, independent of the multiplier chosen.

Step-by-Step: How the Crew Number Was Built

Showing the arithmetic one line at a time, for the plumber + supervisor row above:

Plumber wage × hours: $30.67 × 8 = $245.36
Supervisor wage × hours: $38.42 × 8 = $307.36
Unburdened crew total: $245.36 + $307.36 = $552.72
Apply low-end multiplier: $552.72 × 2.0 = $1,105.44
Apply mid multiplier: $552.72 × 2.5 = $1,381.80
Apply high-end multiplier: $552.72 × 3.0 = $1,658.16

Every number in that chain traces back to a BLS wage figure and the stated 2x-3x assumption — nothing in the sequence is invented mid-calculation.

Can You Reverse-Check a Quote Against the Wage?

Run the arithmetic backward: divide the billed hourly rate you were quoted by 2, 2.5, and 3 to see the wage that rate would need to support, then compare that against the BLS wage range above.

Quoted billed rate	Implied wage at 2.0x	Implied wage at 2.5x	Implied wage at 3.0x
$60/hr	$30.00	$24.00	$20.00
$90/hr	$45.00	$36.00	$30.00
$120/hr	$60.00	$48.00	$40.00
$150/hr	$75.00	$60.00	$50.00
$180/hr	$90.00	$72.00	$60.00

A $60/hr quote implies a wage of $20 to $30/hr, inside or just below the BLS 25th-to-median range ($24.13 to $30.67) — plausible. A $150/hr quote implies $50 to $75/hr, above the BLS 75th percentile ($40.92/hr) even at the highest multiplier. That is not proof of overcharging; it could reflect emergency premiums, specialty licensing, or higher local overhead not captured in a national wage series. But it is the specific number to ask the contractor to explain.

Worth noting on the $120/hr row: at 2.5x the implied wage is $48.00/hr, which sits between the BLS median ($30.67) and 75th percentile ($40.92) but is not itself a BLS-reported figure — it is only where the reverse calculation lands, not a wage anyone is claiming to earn.

Are Materials Getting More Expensive?

The Producer Price Index tracks index levels, not dollar prices, so these numbers describe direction and rate of change only — never convert an index point into a price.

Material category	July 2025	July 2026	Change
Primary nonferrous metals (WPU1022)	355.181	542.853	+52.8%
Plastic construction products (WPU0721)	339.440	356.305	+5.0%

Copper and other nonferrous metals used in pipe, fittings and fixtures rose over half again in cost in twelve months. PVC and PEX, tracked under plastic construction products, rose a comparatively small 5.0%. If your job spec calls for copper, expect the materials line to have moved a lot more than the labor line since last year. Neither figure tells you a dollar price; only your supplier’s invoice does that.

Two Common Misconceptions, Corrected With Numbers

“$100/hr means the plumber pockets $100/hr.” At the BLS median wage of $30.67/hr, a $100/hr bill implies a burden multiplier of 3.26x, which is at the outer edge of the 2x-3x working assumption, not evidence the plumber is overpaid. The wage and the bill are two different numbers by design. Even measured against the mean wage of $34.70/hr — itself already pulled up by top earners — a $100/hr bill still implies a 2.88x multiplier, still inside the stated range.

“Materials have stayed flat, so a bid that’s up 20% must be padding.” Nonferrous metals are up 52.8% year over year per the PPI data above. A copper-heavy repipe job priced 20% higher than last year could be entirely explained by material cost alone, with no change in labor rate or margin. By contrast, a PVC or PEX job priced 20% higher, against a materials index that moved only 5.0%, has a much smaller cost-side explanation and is worth asking about directly.

What This Calculation Cannot See

These tables are wage arithmetic, not a site visit. None of the following are in the source data, so none of them are in the numbers above:

Permit fees, which vary by city and are set locally, not federally.
Disposal and haul-away costs for old fixtures, pipe or water heaters.
Code upgrade requirements triggered by opening a wall or replacing a system.
Access difficulty: crawl spaces, slab leaks, finished walls that need to be opened and repaired.
Seasonal demand, which can shift what contractors bid regardless of wage data.
Emergency or after-hours call-out premiums, which are priced by the contractor, not the BLS.

If your job involves any of these, expect the real quote to sit above the labor-only numbers here. A slab leak that requires breaking through a foundation slab adds hours of demolition and patching that never show up as a separate “labor rate” line — they just get folded into a larger hours estimate, which is why two quotes for the “same” repair can differ sharply even when both contractors quote an identical hourly rate. Similarly, an old cast-iron drain line that needs cutting and disposal at a licensed facility carries a haul-away fee that has nothing to do with the wage tables above and everything to do with local disposal regulations.

How To Read A Real Quote Against These Numbers

Ask for the bid broken into at least three line items: labor hours and rate, materials with a supplier reference, and a separate line for permits or disposal if applicable. A bid that refuses to separate labor from materials is the one line-item structure worth pushing back on.

The single question that exposes a padded bid: “What is your hourly labor rate, and how many hours do you expect this to take?” If the contractor cannot answer both halves, or the hourly rate times the hours does not come close to the total quoted, the difference is either an undisclosed materials markup or an undisclosed multiplier. Neither is automatically wrong, but you are entitled to know which one it is.

What To Check Before You Sign

Get the labor rate and estimated hours in writing, separate from materials.
Ask what the materials line is based on: an actual supplier quote, or a rough allowance.
If the job touches copper, ask whether the price was locked before or after the current PPI run-up.
Confirm whether permit and disposal costs are included in the total or billed separately.
If the hourly rate implies a wage above the BLS 75th percentile ($40.92/hr) even at a 3x multiplier, ask what justifies it: emergency premium, specialty license, or local overhead.