How much do elevator installers make in Wisconsin in 2026?

The median elevator installer salary in Wisconsin is $77,640 a year, which works out to roughly $37.33 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That's the midpoint — half the installers in the state earn more, half earn less. If you're just starting out or working in a slower market, expect to land closer to the 25th percentile at $60,140 annually (~$28.91/hr). Experienced installers in high-demand areas push up to the 75th percentile at $94,080 a year (~$45.23/hr). The spread between the bottom quarter and the top quarter is $33,940 — that's a meaningful gap, and it reflects how much experience, specialization, and location can move the needle in this trade.

Elevator installing is one of the more physically demanding and technically precise trades. Installers work in shafts, machine rooms, and on construction sites where they assemble, install, and maintain elevators, escalators, and other lifting equipment. The work requires reading blueprints, running electrical wiring, fabricating components, and programming control systems. That combination of mechanical and electrical skill is a big reason this trade pays well compared to many other construction occupations.

The range from $60,140 to $94,080 reflects real differences in what drives pay in this field. Early-career installers who are still working through their apprenticeship hours will typically sit at or below the 25th percentile. Once you've completed a full apprenticeship — typically four to five years — and hold a journeyman card, median pay becomes a realistic floor rather than a ceiling. Installers who take on supervisory roles, work on complex modernization projects, or maintain high-rise systems in dense urban areas tend to cluster in that upper quartile.

Wisconsin's geography matters here. The Milwaukee metro area, including Waukesha and surrounding suburbs, has the densest concentration of high-rise commercial and residential buildings in the state. That's where the most consistent work is, and where pay tends to track toward the higher end of the range. Madison, as the state capital and a growing tech and education hub, generates steady demand for both new installations and modernization of older systems. Smaller cities and rural parts of the state have less consistent elevator work, which can mean fewer hours and lower annual earnings even if the hourly rate doesn't change dramatically.

Overtime is common in this trade, particularly during busy construction cycles or when maintenance contracts require after-hours or weekend response. Because the BLS OEWS figures used here reflect straight-time wages as reported by employers, actual annual take-home for someone working significant overtime can be meaningfully higher than the $77,640 median suggests. An installer at the median rate who logs 200 hours of overtime in a year at time-and-a-half adds roughly $11,200 to their annual gross — pushing total earnings closer to $89,000 without any bump in base pay.

Some elevator installers in Wisconsin work under collective bargaining agreements, which set wage scales, benefit contributions, and progression schedules through negotiated contracts. If you're covered by one of these agreements, your actual pay scale and benefit package will be defined by that agreement — check the specific terms directly with your local rather than relying solely on statewide averages.

These figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, published May 2025. BLS collects data from employer payroll records, which means it captures base wages and reported overtime but doesn't include unreported cash payments, some fringe benefits, or per diem allowances that some workers receive. The data covers employees, not self-employed contractors. TradesPays presents this data as-is to give workers and employers a reliable, sourced benchmark for negotiating pay.