How much do rebar workers make in Maryland in 2026?

The median rebar worker in Maryland earns $61,640 per year, which works out to roughly $29.63 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That figure comes from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025 and reflects workers across commercial construction, highway and bridge projects, and industrial sites throughout the state.

Pay spreads noticeably depending on where you sit in the workforce. The 25th percentile — workers earlier in their careers or on lower-paying job sites — comes in at $59,180 annually, or about $28.45 an hour. Experienced ironworkers placing rebar on larger projects push into the 75th percentile at $65,150 a year, around $31.32 an hour. That's a $5,970 gap between the bottom quarter and the top quarter of Maryland rebar workers, which is meaningful but not enormous — it tells you this is a trade where showing up consistently and building site experience moves the needle more than anything else.

Maryland's construction geography matters. The Baltimore metro area and the suburbs ringing Washington, D.C. — Prince George's County, Montgomery County, and Anne Arundel County — carry the most active commercial and infrastructure work. Transit projects, highway interchanges, parking structures, and data center builds in those corridors keep rebar crews busy and tend to support wages at or above the state median. Workers further from those population centers, on smaller residential or county road projects, may land closer to the 25th percentile simply because the scale of work is smaller and overtime is less consistent.

Overtime is a real factor in take-home pay. Rebar work is physically demanding and deadline-driven — concrete pours don't wait. On active projects, 50-hour weeks are common during the push phase of a pour. At the median straight-time rate of $29.63 an hour, a 10-hour overtime week adds roughly $444 in gross pay at time-and-a-half. Workers who consistently land on projects with aggressive schedules can push their effective annual earnings well above what the BLS annual figure shows, since that figure is based on standard-hour wage rates, not total compensation including overtime.

Apprenticeship is the clearest path into this trade and the most reliable route to the 75th percentile. Rebar workers typically learn through a formal apprenticeship program that combines on-the-job hours with related technical instruction. Apprentice wages start below journeyman scale and step up as you complete hours — most programs run two to three years. Completing your apprenticeship and reaching journeyman status is the single biggest wage jump most rebar workers will see in their career.

Some workers may be covered by a collective bargaining agreement — check with your local for current rates.

A few factors that push individual pay toward the top of the range: years of field experience placing and tying reinforcing steel, ability to read structural drawings and work from rebar placement plans without close supervision, competency with hydraulic benders and mechanical splicing systems, and OSHA 30 certification. Workers who can move into a foreman role — managing a small crew and coordinating with the general contractor — typically earn above the 75th percentile figures reported here, since BLS OEWS data captures wage rates at a point in time and may not fully reflect foreman premiums or all forms of project-specific pay.

The BLS data also doesn't capture per diem, travel pay, or tool allowances that some contractors offer on out-of-town projects. If you're pricing out-of-area work or a prevailing wage job on a public project, make sure you account for those line items separately from the hourly wage rate. Maryland public works projects subject to the state prevailing wage law set minimum rates by county and trade classification — those rates can differ from the statewide BLS median and are worth checking directly with the Maryland Department of Labor before bidding or accepting a job offer.

Bottom line: a Maryland rebar worker at the median earns $61,640 a year at about $29.63 an hour. The 75th percentile is within reach at $65,150 for workers who stick with the trade, complete their apprenticeship, and target the busier metro-area markets and infrastructure projects where the work is consistent and overtime is available.