How much do boilermakers make in Ohio in 2026?

The median boilermaker in Ohio earns $85,550 a year, which works out to $41.13 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That's the middle of the pack — half of Ohio boilermakers earn more, half earn less. If you're just starting out or working in a lower-demand region of the state, you're more likely to land near the 25th percentile at $59,110 annually, or about $28.42 an hour. Experienced hands and those working the most demanding industrial sites tend to push toward the 75th percentile at $99,670 a year — roughly $47.92 an hour. All figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025.

The spread between the bottom and top quartiles is significant — $40,560 separating the 25th from the 75th percentile. That gap reflects real-world differences in experience, certifications, shift work, and the type of facility you're working in. Boilermakers at heavy industrial sites — refineries, chemical plants, and power generation facilities — consistently pull higher wages than those doing general construction or maintenance work. Ohio has a solid concentration of both, with manufacturing corridors in the northeast and power infrastructure scattered across the state giving qualified boilermakers steady access to the higher-paying end of that range.

Hours matter as much as the base rate. Boilermakers regularly work overtime, especially during planned shutdowns and outages when facilities need to bring large vessels, pressure systems, and heat exchangers back online on a tight schedule. At the median rate of $41.13 an hour, a single 10-hour overtime day adds roughly $206 at straight time alone — and considerably more when overtime premiums kick in. Workers who position themselves for outage seasons can meaningfully outpace their base annual figures.

Certifications and weld tests are the clearest way to move up the pay scale. Boilermakers who hold current weld certifications for pressure vessels — particularly those tested to ASME standards — are in higher demand and can command better rates. Similarly, workers with experience on large field-erected boilers or with specialized skills in tube rolling and hydrostatic testing are rarely the ones sitting at $28 an hour.

Geography within Ohio plays a role too. The Youngstown–Warren corridor, greater Cleveland, and Toledo all have heavier concentrations of industrial employers who need certified boilermakers on a regular basis. More rural areas may offer work but tend toward the lower end of the wage range simply due to fewer competing employers bidding for the same labor.

No union scale data was available for boilermakers in Ohio at the time of publication. Union agreements, where in place, typically set a floor and may include additional fringe benefits — health insurance, pension contributions, and annuity funds — that aren't captured in the wage figures above. Workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement should compare their full package against these figures, not the wage line alone.

The bottom line: a skilled, certified boilermaker in Ohio with a few years of documented outage experience is realistically looking at $85,000 to $100,000 a year before overtime. Entry-level workers fresh out of an apprenticeship program will start closer to the $59,000–$65,000 range and can expect meaningful wage progression tied directly to certifications earned and hours logged on critical systems.