How much do rebar workers make in Florida in 2026?

The median rebar worker in Florida earns $50,500 a year, which works out to roughly $24.28 an hour based on a 2,080-hour work year. That's your baseline number — what a worker with solid experience and steady employment can expect to take home before overtime. The figures on this page come from BLS OEWS May 2025 data and represent what Florida employers are actually paying.

Pay spreads out significantly depending on where you land in the workforce. Workers at the 25th percentile — newer hands, workers in slower markets, or those with less consistent hours — earn around $45,550 a year, or about $21.90 an hour. Workers at the 75th percentile bring in $57,300 a year, roughly $27.55 an hour. That's a $11,750 gap between the lower and upper quartiles, which tells you experience, geography within the state, and the type of construction project you're on all move the needle meaningfully.

Rebar work in Florida is tied directly to the construction cycle. The state has a large volume of infrastructure activity — highways, bridges, commercial pours, high-rise concrete structures — and rebar ironworkers are on every one of those jobs. Projects along the I-4 corridor, in Miami-Dade, and in the Tampa Bay area tend to pay at or above the median because of the scale and complexity of the work. Smaller residential or low-rise commercial jobs in rural counties may land closer to the 25th percentile.

One factor that pushes pay up: Florida's construction season is essentially year-round. Unlike northern states where cold weather kills concrete work for months at a time, workers here can log a full 2,080 hours or more annually. That keeps annual earnings more predictable and makes overtime hours — which are common on large pour schedules and fast-track jobs — a real opportunity to push past the 75th percentile figure.

No union scale is available for rebar workers in Florida at this time. Most rebar work in the state is performed on open-shop jobsites. That means your pay is set by your contractor and your negotiating position, not a collectively bargained agreement. On large commercial and infrastructure jobs, some contractors do pay prevailing wages tied to Davis-Bacon rates on federally funded work, which can bring hourly rates closer to or above $27–$28 an hour for journey-level workers.

To move from the bottom of the range toward the top, the practical path is straightforward: accumulate hours on larger structural projects, get comfortable reading rebar placement drawings and BIM models, and pick up your OSHA 30 if you haven't already. Contractors who work on DOT bridge and highway jobs expect workers to move between tying, placing, and operating tools like rebar benders and cutters — versatility gets you on better crews. Foreman and lead positions typically pay above the 75th percentile and are the most direct jump in annual earnings available within this trade.

Florida's cost of living varies sharply by region. A wage of $24.28 an hour goes further in Ocala or the Panhandle than it does in Miami or Orlando. Workers should factor housing costs into any decision about which part of the state to pursue work in — $57,300 a year (the 75th percentile) in a lower-cost metro is a more comfortable position than the median in South Florida's rental market.

All figures on this page are from BLS OEWS May 2025. TradesPays updates data as new BLS releases become available.