TradePathHub
Press

Data for Journalists

Construction wage data by metro area, free to download, with the source of every figure. For wage questions on a story, see Contact below.

What We Publish

6 trades, 2,482 area pages (1,851 metro, 631 nonmetro) across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. 774 areas carry a published journey-level rate: 749 union scale and 25 state prevailing rates; 599 are current and 175 more than two years old, marked as such wherever they appear. The rates take effect between June 2016 and September 2026; BLS figures are from the May 2025 survey.

Beside each area's BLS median we publish the journey-level union scale where one is published: the base rate, the employer's fringe contribution and the date the rate took effect, each sourced to a Davis-Bacon wage determination, a state prevailing wage determination or the local's own collective bargaining agreement. The BLS median covers every worker in the occupation, union and non-union, apprentice through master. Union scale is the negotiated rate for a journey-level worker. They measure different things, and the site and the downloads label them separately.

Methodology

Area wages are BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics medians, one occupation code per trade. Union rates are captured from public sources only and carry their source type and effective date; a rate is never estimated where none is published. A rate more than two years old stays on the page with a marker, because it is the most recent one published. The full source text, occupation codes and definitions are on the methodology page.

How to Cite

Source: TradePathHub analysis of BLS OEWS (May 2025) wage data and published union wage scales.

Please link the specific page you used, such as the city page for the area in your story, so readers can see the figures and their sources.

Free for editorial, academic and personal use with attribution to TradePathHub and a link. Commercial use, redistribution or resale requires a license; contact us. The full wording is in the data terms.

Downloads

One CSV per trade, one row per metro or nonmetro area, rebuilt with the site. Columns: state, area, area_type, bls_median_hourly, bls_median_annual, bls_survey, union_local, union_scale_base, union_fringe, union_effective_date, union_stale, rate_type, page_url. Union columns are blank where no union rate is published; a state prevailing rate carries no local name.

Data Updates

Notify me when the data updates: one email when a new BLS release or a batch of union rates lands. Nothing else.

One email per update. Reply to unsubscribe.

About the Source

Brian Peterson, Founder, TradePathHub (Walk Studios).

Former construction math instructor, Mid-South Construction Careers pre-apprenticeship program (Memphis)

Contact

Email press@tradepathhub.com, or use the contact form and choose Press as the subject.

Fast turnaround on deadline requests.