How much do construction laborers make in Arizona in 2026?

Construction laborers in Arizona earn a median $46,590 a year, which works out to about $22.40 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That's the midpoint — half of laborers in the state earn more, half earn less. If you're trying to figure out where you stand or what to aim for, those are the numbers to benchmark against.

The bottom quarter of earners — workers just getting started, picking up inconsistent work, or staying in lower-wage markets — pull in $39,610 or less per year, around $19.04 an hour. That's not a poverty wage, but it doesn't leave a lot of room either. If you're sitting at that level with more than a year or two of experience, it's worth asking why.

Workers at the 75th percentile earn $51,620 a year, or roughly $24.82 an hour. Getting into that top quarter usually means a combination of things: reliable attendance, experience on multiple project types, a foreman who knows your name, and ideally some specialty skills — concrete finishing, demolition, traffic control certification, or equipment operation. Those extras matter on a job site.

The gap between the 25th and 75th percentile is about $12,010 a year. That's not a rounding error. Over a five-year stretch, the difference between a low-end and high-end laborer wage in Arizona adds up to roughly $60,000. The single biggest lever most laborers have is moving from general grunt work toward a specialty or stepping into a lead laborer role, both of which push pay toward or past that 75th percentile mark.

Arizona's construction market runs hot in the Phoenix metro and expanding areas around Tucson and the East Valley. Commercial, infrastructure, and residential projects are all active, which means steady demand for laborers. That said, demand doesn't automatically translate to higher wages unless you're willing to move between employers or project types to chase the better-paying work.

No union scale data is available for construction laborers in Arizona at this time. Workers in open-shop environments should use the BLS figures above as their baseline. If a contractor is offering you significantly less than $19.04 an hour for full-time work, that's a signal worth paying attention to.

All figures on this page come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025. These are state-level estimates and reflect wages across all experience levels and employer types in Arizona.