How much do cement masons make in Minnesota in 2026?

The median cement mason in Minnesota earns $66,830 a year, which works out to roughly $32.13 an hour based on a 2,080-hour work year. That number comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025. It is a solid benchmark, but where you fall in that range depends heavily on experience, employer type, and which part of the state you work in.

The bottom quarter of Minnesota cement masons — workers who are newer to the trade or working smaller residential jobs — earns up to $59,920 a year, about $28.81 an hour. The top quarter clears $79,480 a year, or roughly $38.21 an hour. That $19,560 spread between the 25th and 75th percentile is meaningful. A mason five or six years into the trade working commercial and infrastructure projects can realistically expect to be pushing toward or past that upper band.

Minnesota's construction season compresses into roughly eight to nine strong months. Concrete work is especially weather-dependent — cold temperatures slow curing and can shut down flatwork entirely. That means many cement masons chase overtime hard from April through October, logging 50- to 60-hour weeks when pours are stacked. Overtime at time-and-a-half can add $10,000 to $20,000 or more to an annual paycheck versus a straight-40 schedule, but it also means some workers face lean winters if they haven't planned for the gap. Masons who pick up indoor work — warehouse floors, tilt-up panels, underground parking structures — manage that seasonal dip better than those who stick to exterior flatwork only.

Geography within Minnesota shifts the numbers noticeably. The Twin Cities metro — Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the surrounding suburbs — drives the heaviest construction volume in the state. Large commercial pours, light rail infrastructure, warehouse and distribution center slabs, and high-rise core work all concentrate there. Masons based in the metro typically have more consistent hours and access to larger general contractors who pay toward the top of the scale. Greater Minnesota cities like Duluth, Rochester, and St. Cloud offer a mix of municipal and commercial work, but volume and average wages tend to run somewhat below the metro corridor.

Specialization is one of the clearest ways to move up the pay scale. Masons who develop skills in decorative concrete — stamping, polishing, epoxy overlays, exposed aggregate — can often command premium rates because those jobs require more precision and fewer workers have them. Laser screed operation, high-tolerance floor flatness work for distribution or manufacturing facilities, and concrete pumping coordination are other skills that make a mason harder to replace and easier to justify paying at the 75th percentile or above.

The BLS figures here are a statewide average across all employer sizes and project types. They do not separately capture what union members earn under collective bargaining agreements versus non-union workers, since no union scale data is available for cement masons in Minnesota through this source. In practice, workers covered by union agreements in the metro area often receive total compensation — including health insurance, pension contributions, and annuity payments — that pushes the real value of their package well above the base wage alone. Non-union masons on open-shop commercial sites may see higher gross hourly rates but cover more of their own benefits costs.

Apprenticeships run three to four years in most programs and start at a percentage of journeyman scale, stepping up every six months or annually. Getting into a structured program early — whether through a union hall or a contractor-sponsored apprenticeship — tends to compress the time it takes to reach median wages compared to picking up skills informally. Minnesota does not require a state license to work as a cement mason, but journeyman-level experience and a documented work history matter when moving between employers or bidding on prevailing wage public jobs.

If you are tracking your pay against these numbers, remember that the BLS data reflects wages paid directly by employers and does not include overtime premiums, per diem for out-of-town work, or tool allowances. A mason earning $30 an hour base who regularly pulls 55-hour weeks and receives a $75-a-day per diem on long-haul jobs is clearing substantially more than the median figure suggests on paper.