For contractors under 200 employees
Construction salary survey and construction compensation survey prices compared, with federal pay by contractor type
A construction salary survey costs $600 to $645 a book from PAS, $75 to $500 from an AGC chapter if you do not submit data, and $3,950 for Pearl Meyer's engineering and construction club survey. FMI, Texo, WTW and ERI print no price. For crews, foremen and operators, the federal wage survey already publishes construction medians. For estimators and project managers, which contractor type you are matters more than the survey.
Hiring an estimator, a superintendent or a crew lead this month? Price the role on the right. The builder gives you a band and a posted range you can put in the job ad.
- P25
- $0
- P50 ยท Median
- $0
- P75
- $0
Suggested posted range
Built from public U.S. BLS OES wage data (May 2025 release), adjusted for market, seniority and company stage by the multipliers published in our methodology.
Get bands for your whole team
Get started
Same job title, three different markets. What a heavy and civil contractor pays above building and specialty trade contractors, May 2025.
- Cost estimators, heavy and civil vs all industries
- +26.9%
- HVAC mechanics, heavy and civil vs all industries
- +23.9%
- Construction laborers, widest gap between the three contractor types
- 1.1%
Which construction salary survey a contractor under 200 employees actually needs
Buy a survey for your office and project roles, not your crews. In the May 2025 federal wage data, laborers, carpenters, foremen, operators and truck drivers are paid within 1 to 4 percent of each other whether they work for a building, a heavy and civil or a specialty trade contractor. Estimators, project managers, electricians and HVAC techs swing 16 to 27 percent. Those are the roles where a survey with a contractor-type cut earns its price.
That matters because a small contractor's payroll has two very different halves. The field half is large, hourly and priced against the union scale or the shop down the road. The office half is small, salaried and priced against every other contractor in the region who is trying to hire the same estimator. Most expensive mistakes happen in the second half: a heavy civil firm that anchors an estimator offer on a generic salary site starts about $21,000 below its own sector median, and loses the candidate to a competitor who looked at the right number.
The good news is that construction surveys are cheap compared with other sectors. PAS, the publisher whose data ENR and CFMA cite, sells each book for under $650. A state AGC chapter guide can be $75. The expensive part is knowing which book matches your roles and your contractor type, and that is what the rest of this page sorts out.
Quick guide
- Laborers, carpenters, operators
- Federal data plus your metro
- Estimators and project managers
- A cut by contractor type
- Owner, president, CFO
- An executive survey by revenue
- Per diem and truck allowance
- A survey that reports them
- Public work crafts
- The Davis-Bacon determination
Construction compensation survey prices and what each one covers
Every price below is quoted from the publisher's own price list, product page or a chapter page that sells the report. Where a publisher does not print a price we say so rather than guess. The pattern that runs through most of them: submitting your own data is the discount, and at several AGC chapters it makes the report free.
| Survey | Published price | Coverage | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| PAS Construction/Construction Management Staff Salary Survey | $640, or $735 with the flash drive | 58 positions, over 34,000 employees, base and bonus. Updated each February. The drive adds 311 pages of breakouts by revenue size | Estimators, PMs, superintendents, engineers |
| PAS Executive Compensation Survey for Contractors | $645, or $740 with the flash drive | 18 executive positions, over 3,300 executives. Base, bonus, profit sharing, company car | Owner, president, CFO, VP operations |
| PAS Construction Support Staff Survey | $610, or $705 with the flash drive | 46 positions | Accounting, payroll, admin, IT |
| PAS Merit Shop Wage and Benefit Survey | $620, or $790 with the flash drive | Over 600 merit shop contractors, 30 journeyman, 30 foreman, 22 apprentice and 11 helper positions. Updated in June | Open shop craft wages |
| PAS Heavy, Highway and Municipal Wage and Benefit Survey | $600, or $770 with the flash drive | Heavy civil craft and field positions | Road, bridge and utility contractors |
| PAS Vehicle Allowances and Practices Survey | $245, PDF only | Company vehicle and allowance practices | Setting a truck allowance |
| AGC of Colorado Salary Survey | Free to participants. $250 member, $500 non-member | Executive, management, financial, administrative and craft positions | Colorado contractors |
| Baker Tilly (formerly Moss Adams) Construction Industry Salary Report, sold through AGC chapters | AGC Oregon-Columbia: $75 member, $150 non-member for non-participants | Construction companies of all sizes, Idaho, Oregon and Washington cut at that chapter | Pacific Northwest contractors |
| NECA Officer and Overhead Personnel Compensation Report | Free to respondents. A NECA chapter lists $45 member, $95 non-member | Officer and overhead roles at electrical contractors | Electrical contractors' office staff |
| Pearl Meyer National Engineering and Construction Salary Survey | $3,950 | Club survey, 52 participating organizations, 19 job families, about 104 jobs | Large power, petrochemical and civil firms |
| FMI Compensation and Benefits Surveys | Not published, demo or subscription | Executive, construction professional, and benefits and pay practices including vehicle allowances and per diems | Firms that want per diem data with the salary data |
| Texo, WTW, ERI | Not published | Texo covers Texas market regions at a participant discount. WTW and ERI sell construction cuts by quote | Texas members, or firms already on WTW or ERI |
| NCCER Construction Craft Salary Survey | $0, released every two years | Craft salaries, excluding overtime, per diem and incentives | A second opinion on craft pay |
| Davis-Bacon wage determinations | $0 | Prevailing hourly wage and fringe for each craft, by county. Binding on federally funded work over $2,000 | Public work bids. Crafts only |
| WageList | $99 a month, or $948 a year | Staff roles by market, with a band and a postable range, built on the federal wage survey | Bands and job ad ranges all year, without a sales call |
Salary.com has no construction book
Its CompData store lists industry surveys for manufacturing, healthcare, banking, engineering services and more, at $995 a region for participants, but nothing for contractors. Our CompData salary survey pricing breakdown shows the full price grid.
Recruiter guides are free for a reason
Staffing firms publish construction salary guides built from their own placements and offers. They report per diem and car allowances, which is useful, but they describe the candidates that firm placed, not the market.
Participation is the discount
AGC of Colorado goes from $500 to free if you submit. PAS quotes participant rates by phone. If you can spare an afternoon of payroll exports, submit before you buy.
Construction pay by contractor type, building vs heavy and civil vs specialty trade
The federal wage survey does not publish a single construction figure. It publishes the three construction subsectors separately: building contractors (NAICS 236), heavy and civil engineering contractors (237) and specialty trade contractors (238). Most salary sites flatten them into one "construction" number. The table below keeps them apart, because for a third of the roles the split is the whole answer.
Read it by row. Where the three contractor columns sit within a few percent of each other, the national all-industry median is a fine anchor and your metro does the rest. Where one column jumps, you need a source that knows which kind of contractor you are, and PAS is the cheapest one that does.
| Role | All industries | Building contractors | Heavy and civil | Specialty trade | Gap inside construction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost estimators | $78,740 | $84,610 | $99,910 | $80,330 | 24.4% |
| HVAC mechanics and installers | $61,010 | $59,680 | $75,600 | $60,070 | 26.7% |
| Construction managers | $114,990 | $110,710 | $124,430 | $104,100 | 19.5% |
| Electricians | $63,190 | $63,750 | $73,520 | $61,630 | 19.3% |
| Civil engineers | $100,840 | $82,450 | $93,350 | $87,980 | 13.2% |
| Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters | $63,800 | $69,370 | $63,270 | $63,150 | 9.8% |
| Cement masons and concrete finishers | $57,020 | $60,550 | $55,480 | $57,020 | 9.1% |
| Carpenters | $60,580 | $61,570 | $62,600 | $59,960 | 4.4% |
| Operating engineers and equipment operators | $59,850 | $63,160 | $62,770 | $60,760 | 3.9% |
| First-line supervisors of construction trades | $79,920 | $79,560 | $81,730 | $79,770 | 2.7% |
| Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers | $58,640 | $56,750 | $55,900 | $56,110 | 1.5% |
| Construction laborers | $47,120 | $47,770 | $47,490 | $47,230 | 1.1% |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 national estimates for NAICS 236, 237 and 238 and for all industries. Median annual wage. Gap inside construction is the highest of the three contractor medians over the lowest.
Building contractors, 236
General contractors and home builders. Plumbers earn their highest median here, $69,370, 8.7 percent over the all-industry figure. Estimators run $84,610.
Heavy and civil, 237
Roads, bridges, utilities, pipelines. The top payer for estimators, construction managers, electricians and HVAC techs. Price these roles off a generic median and you start about 16 to 27 percent low.
Specialty trade, 238
Electrical, mechanical, concrete, roofing, framing. Construction managers median $104,100 here, the lowest of the three, because many are running a single trade's jobs rather than a whole project.
One reversal is worth knowing before you hire an engineer. Civil engineers at contractors earn less than civil engineers overall: $82,450 at building contractors against $100,840 across all industries. Contractors are competing with engineering firms and public agencies for the same people, and the all-industry median is the number a design-firm engineer will have in mind when your offer arrives.
Salary bands for general contractor roles, 25th to 75th percentile
A median tells you the middle. A band tells you how far apart two people in the same job can sensibly be paid. These are the May 2025 federal percentiles at building contractors, the subsector most small general contractors report under, with the hourly equivalent at 2,080 hours.
Construction managers (PMs, general superintendents)
$84,680 to $150,960, median $110,710 ($40.71 to $72.58 an hour). Spread 78 percent.
Cost estimators
$66,490 to $112,650, median $84,610 ($31.97 to $54.16 an hour). Spread 69 percent.
First-line supervisors (foremen)
$64,030 to $99,860, median $79,560 ($30.78 to $48.01 an hour). Spread 56 percent.
Carpenters
$49,380 to $77,150, median $61,570 ($23.74 to $37.09 an hour). Spread 56 percent.
Construction laborers
$39,230 to $59,970, median $47,770 ($18.86 to $28.83 an hour). Spread 53 percent.
Notice the spread on construction managers: 78 percent from the 25th to the 75th percentile. That one federal title holds an assistant PM on a tenant improvement job and a general superintendent running a $40 million building. The survey you buy for that role has to separate them, which is exactly what PAS's revenue breakouts and title ladder do. For crews, a 53 to 56 percent spread is ordinary and your own experience ladder can place people inside it. Turning these percentiles into grades is covered in salary bands, and the grade structure around them in salary structure.
What a construction salary survey covers that federal wage data does not
Per diem and travel pay
Federal wage estimates leave it out, and NCCER's craft survey excludes it by design. FMI's benefits and pay practices survey reports per diems, as do recruiter guides. If your crews travel, this is the number that wins or loses the hire.
Vehicle allowance or company truck
For superintendents and PMs the truck is part of the offer. PAS sells a standalone Vehicle Allowances and Practices Survey for $245, and its executive book records company car practice.
Bonus and profit sharing
Project bonuses are common for PMs and superintendents. PAS's staff book reports base and bonus, and the executive book adds profit sharing. The federal figure is base wages only.
Overtime
Federal wage estimates exclude overtime pay, which on a field crew in season can be a large share of the paycheck. When a candidate compares offers on weekly take-home, your base rate is only part of it. Our overtime calculator shows the full weekly cost.
Union scale and prevailing wage
On federally funded or assisted work over $2,000, the Davis-Bacon determination for your county sets the craft minimum, wage plus fringe. It is free on SAM.gov and it is a floor, not a market rate.
Revenue size
A $15 million contractor and a $500 million contractor both hire "project managers". Federal data cannot tell them apart. PAS breaks every book out by annual revenue, and FMI filters by company size.
Which construction compensation survey fits which contractor
Specialty trade, 20 to 80 people
Your trade association first: NECA's overhead report if you are electrical. Federal data plus metro for the field. One PAS staff book if you are hiring an estimator.
General contractor, 50 to 200
PAS Construction Management Staff with the flash drive, $735, for the revenue breakouts. Your AGC chapter survey if it sells one, submitted rather than bought.
Heavy civil and highway
PAS Heavy, Highway and Municipal for the field, the staff book for estimators and PMs, and the Davis-Bacon determination for every public bid.
Owner setting their own pay
PAS Executive, $645, cut by revenue. If you run an S corporation, that survey is also your reasonable salary evidence.
What none of these does is sit open next to your job ad. A survey arrives once a year as a book or a drive, and your hiring happens every month. That gap is what WageList covers: pick the role and the metro and get a band and a postable range in under a minute, all year, for less than a single PAS book.
Construction job postings, pay ranges and exempt status
State salary range laws have no construction exemption. A contractor over the headcount threshold in Colorado, Washington, New York, California, Illinois or the other pay transparency states posts a good faith range for its estimators and an hourly range for its carpenters. That turns wage data from an annual budget exercise into something every job ad needs. Our pay transparency law guide covers each state, and salary ranges in job postings shows what a compliant posting looks like.
The costlier mistake is classification. Foremen and working superintendents who spend most of the day doing the work alongside the crew may not meet the executive exemption duties test even on a salary, and a salaried nonexempt foreman is still owed overtime. Check the exempt vs non-exempt rules before you move a crew lead to salary, and see FLSA overtime for the four states with a daily overtime trigger.
Construction salary survey questions contractors ask
How much does a construction salary survey cost?
Most published construction salary surveys cost $50 to $800. PAS sells each book for $600 to $645, or $705 to $790 with the flash drive of revenue breakouts. AGC chapter guides run $75 to $500 for non-participants and are free if you submit data. Pearl Meyer's engineering and construction club survey costs $3,950. FMI, Texo, WTW and ERI publish no price.
What is the best construction compensation survey?
For a contractor under 200 employees, PAS is the most complete priced option: separate books for executives, construction management staff, support staff, merit shop crafts and heavy highway work, each cut by contractor type, revenue and region. For one state, your AGC chapter survey is cheaper and local. For large engineering and construction firms, Pearl Meyer.
How much do construction project managers make?
Project managers and superintendents are usually coded as construction managers in the federal wage survey. The May 2025 median is $110,710 at building contractors, $124,430 at heavy and civil contractors and $104,100 at specialty trade contractors. At building contractors the middle half runs from $84,680 to $150,960, which is why a single average is a poor offer anchor.
How much do construction estimators make?
The May 2025 federal median for cost estimators is $84,610 at building contractors, $99,910 at heavy and civil contractors and $80,330 at specialty trade contractors, against $78,740 across all industries. That makes estimators the role where a heavy civil contractor is most likely to underpay if it prices off a generic salary site.
Does BLS wage data include overtime and per diem?
No. Federal occupational wage estimates exclude overtime pay, and they do not capture per diem, vehicle allowances or most bonuses. NCCER's craft salary survey excludes overtime, per diem and incentives too. If per diem or a truck allowance is a real part of your offer, you need PAS's vehicle survey, FMI's benefits survey or a recruiter guide that reports them.
Is a Davis-Bacon wage determination a salary survey?
It is a legal minimum, not a market benchmark. A wage determination sets the hourly wage and fringe benefits the Department of Labor has ruled prevailing for each craft in a county, and it binds federally funded or assisted contracts over $2,000. It covers crafts only, so it tells you nothing about estimators, project managers or office staff.
Do construction companies have to post salary ranges?
Yes, in the states with pay transparency laws. Colorado, Washington, New York, California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and others require a pay range in job postings once the employer meets the headcount threshold. Hourly craft jobs get an hourly range. Construction has no exemption, so each posted role needs a defensible number.
Which construction jobs can I price without a paid survey?
Laborers, carpenters, foremen, equipment operators and truck drivers. In the May 2025 federal data their medians barely move between building, heavy and civil, and specialty trade contractors, with gaps of 1 to 4 percent. Federal data plus your metro gets those right. Estimators, project managers, electricians and HVAC techs move 16 to 27 percent by contractor type, so they need a sector cut.
Price the estimator before the other contractor does
Pick the role and the market, get a band and a range you can paste into the posting. Plans from $99 a month, no sales call.
Other sector salary surveys and pricing guides
-
Salary survey providers
The general-market publishers and what each one charges.
-
Manufacturing salary survey
Plant surveys compared, with federal pay for 19 floor roles.
-
CompData salary survey pricing
Every Salary.com CompData price, participant and non-participant.
-
Salary survey cost
What compensation survey data costs across the market.