How much do boilermakers make in Colorado in 2026?

Boilermakers in Colorado earn a median wage of $89,350 a year, which works out to roughly $42.96 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That number sits in the middle of the range — a quarter of Colorado boilermakers earn below $86,360 ($41.52/hr), and a quarter earn above $94,930 ($45.64/hr). All figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025.

The spread between the 25th and 75th percentile is about $8,570 a year — roughly $4.12 an hour. That gap is tighter than you might expect, which tells you boilermaker pay in Colorado clusters around a solid middle band. Workers at the top of the range aren't earning dramatically more than those at the bottom, but the difference over a full career still adds up. An extra $4 an hour is roughly $8,320 more per year before overtime.

What moves a Colorado boilermaker from the lower end of that range toward the top? Experience is the biggest factor. A journeyman with five or more years on power generation, refinery, or industrial boiler work consistently commands more than someone just out of an apprenticeship. Specialization matters too — boilermakers who can certify on pressure vessels, work with HRSG units, or handle nuclear plant maintenance generally see pay at or above the 75th percentile.

Geography within Colorado plays a role. The Denver metro and the Front Range corridor have the densest concentration of industrial facilities, power plants, and refineries. Workers willing to travel to remote project sites — mountain utility plants or out-of-state shutdowns — often pick up per diem and travel pay on top of their base hourly rate, which can push total annual earnings well past the figures listed here.

Overtime is a real part of this trade's income picture. Boilermakers frequently work scheduled outages, turnarounds, and maintenance shutdowns, many of which run nights, weekends, and holidays. If a worker averages even 200 hours of overtime a year at time-and-a-half, that adds roughly $12,840 to $13,672 annually on top of the base wage, depending on where they fall in the pay range. That kind of work schedule isn't for everyone, but for workers who want it, it meaningfully increases take-home pay beyond what any annual salary figure captures.

Apprenticeships for boilermakers in Colorado typically run four to five years. Starting wages during a first-year apprenticeship are commonly set as a percentage of the journeyman rate — often around 60 to 70 percent — and step up each year. By the time a worker reaches journeyman status, they're entering right around the Colorado median or above, depending on the employer and the jurisdiction.

No union scale data was available for this trade and state at the time of publication. Union boilermakers in other states have negotiated rates that often match or exceed the BLS median, and that pattern likely holds in Colorado as well, but TradesPays doesn't publish figures it can't verify.

The bottom line on Colorado boilermaker pay: the median is $89,350 ($42.96/hr), the floor for the middle half of earners is $86,360 ($41.52/hr), and the ceiling for that same middle half is $94,930 ($45.64/hr). Workers with experience, certifications, and a willingness to travel or work shutdowns can push their total earnings higher than any single percentile number suggests.