PAS salary survey price and which construction survey books a contractor should buy
A PAS salary survey costs $600 to $645 a book on the 2026 price list, or $705 to $790 with the flash drive of extra breakouts. Contractors that fill in the questionnaire pay $170 a book, about 73 percent less. The staff survey is $640, the executive survey $645, support staff $610, merit shop $620 and heavy highway $600, plus $14.50 shipping.
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PAS, Inc. has published construction pay surveys since 1979, and its staff survey is now in its 44th annual edition. For estimators, project managers and superintendents it is the most detailed priced source a contractor can buy without a consultant. The price is simple once you see it laid out. The decision that actually moves your cost is timing: every book has its own questionnaire deadline, and missing it is the difference between $170 and $640.
The 2026 PAS price list
Every figure below is from the PAS product price list and survey packets page, read on 1 October 2026. Older prices ($150 for participants, $590 or $615 for non-participants) still show in some search snippets; they are from earlier years.
| Survey | Book | Book and drive | Participant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction and Construction Management Staff (58 positions) | $640 | $735 | $170 |
| Executive Compensation for Contractors (18 positions) | $645 | $740 | $170 |
| Construction Support Staff (46 positions) | $610 | $705 | $170 |
| Merit Shop Wage and Benefit (93 craft positions) | $620 | $790 | $170 |
| Benefit Survey for Contractors | $645 | $740 | $170 |
| Heavy, Highway and Municipal Wage and Benefit | $600 | $770 | Not listed |
| Vehicle Allowances and Practices | $245, PDF only | n/a | n/a |
| Aggregate Industry Compensation | $1,300 | n/a | n/a |
The flash drive is where the extra $95 to $170 goes. On the staff survey it adds 311 pages of breakouts by company revenue, and on the merit shop survey it adds all 50 states, DC and more than 50 metro areas, which is the closest PAS gets to a local number. Each title in the books shows base salary, bonus and total compensation at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles, with actual and projected increases, cut by contractor type, construction type, revenue size and region. Two things catch buyers out: the online order form does not take cards (orders are invoiced, or you call), and surveys cannot be returned.
When to participate, survey by survey
The $170 price only exists if you submit the questionnaire for that specific book. Each one runs on its own calendar, so a contractor that decides in April it wants the staff survey has already missed it for the year.
| Survey | Packets out | Data due | Book ships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staff | January | February 27 | Third week of March |
| Merit Shop | April | May 29 | Third week of June |
| Benefit | Week of July 1 | August 14 | Early September |
| Support Staff | August | October 2 | Third week of October |
| Executive (2027 edition) | October | December 1, 2026 | Week before Christmas |
With the support staff deadline on October 2, the executive survey is the next one open. A contractor that submits by December 1 can buy the 2027 executive book at $170 and see it before year-end bonus decisions, which is exactly when owners want it. Participation is confidential (no company is identified), and participants usually also receive a short national summary free.
Three contractors working out their order
A 40-person general contractor in Denver. It needs the staff book for project managers, estimators and superintendents, and the executive book for the owner and the CFO. Bought cold, that is $640 plus $645, or $1,285 before shipping. Submitted on time, it is $340. Colorado requires a pay range in every job posting from the first employee, so the staff book is the one doing real work all year.
An 85-person open shop electrical subcontractor. Craft wages matter most, so the merit shop book with the drive ($790) is the right buy, because the state and metro breakouts are on the drive and not in the printed book. Adding support staff for the office covers payroll and accounting roles at $610. As a participant in both, the pair costs $340, though the participant price is for the report, so confirm with PAS whether the drive is included at that rate.
A road and utility contractor with 120 people. The heavy, highway and municipal book is $600 and PAS lists no participant price for it, so there is no discount to chase. The staff book adds the project managers and estimators at $640, or $170 as a participant. Heavy civil firms tend to pay estimators well above other contractors, so pricing that role off a building contractor number is the classic mistake; the federal figures by contractor type are on our construction salary survey comparison.
How PAS compares on price
PAS is the cheapest national construction book with a published price. Zweig Group sells its 2026 AEC salary report at $995 a region or $3,499 for all regions, though it is built for design firms more than builders. The Texas AGC survey run with FMI costs $1,000 for members and $1,500 for non-members. CFMA's Financial Benchmarker, which includes PAS pay data for 22 accounting positions, runs $200 to $2,450 depending on membership and format. CMAA's 2022 salary survey is $180 for non-members, and FMI prices its online portal only after a demo. The full field, AGC chapter guides included, is compared on salary survey providers and in what a salary survey costs.
What a PAS book does not give you
A current local range. The staff book is national with regional breakouts, its data is from February, and it ships in March, so a range set from it in January is ten months old and drawn from a region that may span several states. That is fine for setting a pay structure once a year. It is not what a posting law asks for, which is a good faith range for that job, in that place, at the time you post it. The rules state by state are on salary ranges in job postings.
Most contractors end up using both: PAS for the structure and the year-end review, and something current for the role being posted this week. WageList does the second part. Pick the role and the metro and you get a band and a range you can paste into the ad, from the latest federal wage data, with the source and date attached. Plans start at $99 a month or $588 a year on the pricing page. And while the office is getting a new hire set up, the same people are usually chasing paperwork from subcontractors; if that includes insurance, it is worth a tool that can track certificates of insurance from every subcontractor before a lapsed policy holds up a pay application.
Is the PAS salary survey worth it?
At $170 as a participant, yes, for any contractor with more than a handful of salaried staff: it is the cheapest job-matched construction pay data available, and one avoided bad offer to an estimator pays for it many times. At $640 cold it is still reasonable for the staff and executive books, less so for the support staff book, whose accounting and admin roles are priced well by general market data. If you only need one or two titles, call PAS for a special report quote first, because books cannot be returned.
Sources: PAS, Inc. product price list, survey packets page, annual compensation surveys page and FAQ (read 1 October 2026); Zweig Group, Texas AGC, CFMA and CMAA product pages. Confirm current pricing with PAS directly.