Union vs non-union pay: what the scales show where we can actually verify it

A union plumber in California scales at $131,040 a year. The BLS median for plumbers in the state is $72,830. That's $58,210 more — about 80% more pay — for the same trade in the same state (UA Local 38 2024 scale; BLS OEWS, May 2025).

That number is real. But before you screenshot it as proof that "union pays 80% more," read the next paragraph, because the honest version of this story is smaller than the headline — and that's the point.

What we can actually verify: 11 pairs, 2 trades

We do not have a national union-vs-non-union map. Nobody honestly does, because the data to build one cleanly doesn't exist. BLS OEWS — the wage dataset we use for everything else — does not split union from non-union. Its median blends both into a single number.

What we do have is the actual collective-bargaining scale for 11 specific trade-and-city pairs, across only two trades: electrician (IBEW) and plumber (UA). That's 11 of the 719 trade×state pairs we'd need for a real national picture. For those 11, we can put the union scale next to the BLS median and show you the gap. Everywhere else, we won't pretend.

So read everything below as: here's what the contract scale shows in these 11 places. Not a national average. Not your local. A verified slice.

The verified gaps

For each pair: the 2024 union scale (the local's negotiated rate), then the BLS OEWS May 2025 median for that trade in that state, then the difference.

Trade · Place	Union scale (2024)	BLS median (May 2025)	Gap
Plumber · California	$131,040 (UA Local 38)	$72,830	+$58,210 (+80%)
Electrician · New York	$122,720 (IBEW Local 3)	$78,750	+$43,970 (+56%)
Plumber · New York	$120,640 (UA Local 1)	$77,490	+$43,150 (+56%)
Electrician · Pennsylvania	$108,160 (IBEW Local 98)	$67,600	+$40,560 (+60%)
Electrician · Texas	$83,200 (IBEW Local 716)	$58,570	+$24,630 (+42%)

Union figures are 2024 CBA approximations (IBEW/UA local scales). BLS figures are OEWS May 2025 medians. BLS does not split union from non-union, so the median is the blended/non-union reference.

The big-city, high-cost pairs are where the gap is widest. A union plumber in California clears the state median by nearly $60,000. A union electrician in New York sits $43,970 above it. Even in Texas — a state in the high-$50s for the blended median — the IBEW Local 716 scale runs $24,630 higher.

One thing to keep straight when you read those scale numbers: they're the negotiated base rate, not your whole check. The 2024 CBA scale is the floor a journeyman is paid under the contract. On top of it sit overtime, shift differentials, travel and per-diem on out-of-town work, and a benefit package — pension and health — that the base number doesn't show. So in practice the union total package can run further above the BLS median than the scale-vs-median gap alone suggests. We quote the base scale because it's the figure we can verify against a contract; we flag the rest so you don't read the base as the ceiling.

Now the smaller gaps, because cherry-picking is lying

If we only showed you the 80% number, we'd be doing exactly what we tell you not to trust. The gap is real, but it is not uniform, and in some places it's modest:

• Electrician · Illinois: +11%. Illinois already medians high (the blended OEWS number is near six figures), so the union scale sits closer to it.
• Plumber · Illinois: +8%. The smallest gap in the set. Where the blended median is already strong, the union premium narrows.
• Electrician · Michigan: +20%. Real, but a fraction of the New York or California spread.

That spread — from +8% to +80% — is the actual finding. There is no single "union premium." It depends heavily on the trade, the local, and how high the blended median already sits in that state.

There's a reason the small gaps and the big gaps line up the way they do. Where a state's blended median is already high — Illinois electricians sit near six figures in the OEWS data — a big chunk of the workforce in that median is already union, so the union scale and the blended median are close to the same population. The gap looks small because you're comparing union pay to a median that union pay already helped set. Where the blended median is lower — Texas, where the OEWS number is in the high $50s — the median reflects a mostly non-union market, so the union scale stands well apart from it. The size of the gap is partly a story about how organized the state already is, not just about what the contract pays.

The aggregate, stated honestly

Across the 11 pairs we can verify, the average gap is +$30,323 — about +39%.

Say that number the right way: it is the mean across the 11 trade-and-city pairs we can verify, for two trades. It is not a national union premium. It is not your local's number. With 11 of 719 possible pairs in hand — and BLS not splitting union status in the underlying data — anyone quoting a clean national "union pays X% more" figure is overstating what the data can support. We'd rather give you 11 solid numbers than one confident fiction.

Where the data goes quiet

A few honest limits on everything above:

• 11 pairs, 2 trades. Electrician (IBEW) and plumber (UA) only. We have no verified scales for the other 28 trades on the site, and no national union map. Don't read this as one.
• Union scales are 2024 CBA approximations. They reflect the negotiated base scale around 2024; actual take-home varies with classification (journeyman vs. apprentice), overtime, shift differentials, and benefit packages that a base-scale number doesn't capture.
• BLS doesn't split union status. The OEWS median blends union and non-union workers. We use it as the non-union/blended reference because it's the cleanest comparison available — but it is not a pure non-union number.
• Medians aren't cost-of-living adjusted. California and New York scale high partly because they're expensive places to live. A bigger number isn't automatically a bigger life. We haven't ingested cost-of-living data, so we won't pretend to adjust.

What to do with this

If you're weighing whether to go union, the honest takeaway is: in the high-cost, heavily-organized markets we can verify — California plumbing, New York electrical — the scale gap is large and real. In states where the blended median is already high, the gap narrows. Look at your trade in your state before you decide, not the headline.

If you're already in the trade, the union scale where we have it is a benchmark you can take into a conversation — but only for these 11 pairs. For everywhere else, the most honest number we can give you is the blended BLS median on your salary page, and we'll say plainly that it doesn't isolate union status.

And if you want this to ever be more than 11 pairs: add your pay. Tell us your trade, your local or non-union status, and your state. We publish anonymously, never with a raw email address. The only way a real union-vs-non-union picture ever gets built is one verified submission at a time — and right now that picture is 11 pairs wide.

Data: union scales are IBEW/UA 2024 CBA approximations covering 11 trade×city pairs (electrician + plumber only); non-union/blended reference is BLS OEWS, May 2025, which does not split union from non-union status. See how we build these numbers.