How much do roofers make in Virginia in 2026?

The median roofer in Virginia earns $48,420 per year, which works out to roughly $23.28 per hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That number comes from BLS OEWS May 2025 data and reflects what a mid-career roofer with steady work in the state is actually pulling in.

If you are newer to the trade or working for a smaller residential contractor, expect to land closer to the 25th percentile: $45,760 per year, or about $22.00 per hour. That is not entry-level wages from a fast-food job — it is still a skilled-trades income — but it does represent the lower end of the documented pay range for roofers in Virginia.

Experienced hands, foremen, and roofers working on commercial or industrial projects tend to sit at the 75th percentile or above. That figure in Virginia is $57,590 per year, roughly $27.69 per hour. The spread between the 25th and 75th percentile is $11,830 annually, which tells you there is real money left on the table for workers who build up specialized skills, take on more responsibility, or move into higher-value project types.

To put those numbers in a weekly context: the median roofer takes home around $931 per week in gross wages before taxes and deductions. At the 75th percentile, that rises to about $1,107 per week. For roofers paid hourly — which is common on residential crews — knowing your hourly rate and how it stacks up against these benchmarks is the fastest way to tell whether you are being paid fairly.

Roofing in Virginia covers a wide range of work: asphalt shingle replacement on suburban single-family homes, flat membrane systems on commercial buildings, metal roofing, and storm-damage repair after severe weather events. The specific type of work you do has a direct effect on your pay. Commercial and industrial roofing generally pays more than residential, partly because the systems are more complex and partly because the contractors tend to be larger and better capitalized.

Geography inside the state also matters. The Northern Virginia corridor — close to the D.C. metro area — typically supports higher wages due to higher cost of living, larger commercial project volume, and stronger contractor competition for skilled workers. Roofers in the Roanoke, Lynchburg, or southwestern Virginia areas may see pay closer to or below the state median.

No union scale data is currently available for this trade in Virginia. Many roofers in the state work non-union, so the BLS figures here represent a broad mix of employer sizes, project types, and experience levels across all regions.

If you are negotiating a wage or evaluating a job offer, use the median — $48,420 per year, $23.28 per hour — as your floor for mid-career work. If you have five or more years of experience, can read a roof plan, and know how to lay out a complex job, the 75th percentile figure of $57,590 is a reasonable target. Do not accept significantly below $45,760 unless you are genuinely in your first year on the tools.

Overtime is common in roofing, especially during peak seasons in spring and fall. Hours above 40 per week at 1.5x your base rate can meaningfully increase your annual take-home beyond what the base salary figures suggest. A roofer earning $23.28 per hour who works just five hours of overtime per week for six months adds roughly $5,300 in gross wages over that period.