Where the numbers come from
We're straight about our sources — and about what we don't have yet. Three feeds, kept separate so you can weigh each one.
BLS OEWS (May 2025)
The base for every page: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. We use the 25th / 50th (median) / 75th percentile annual wages and employment counts for each trade in each of our 25 states. BLS figures cover all workers in a trade — union and non-union — at straight-time pay (no overtime, benefits, or per-diem). Some small-sample trade × state pairs are suppressed by BLS; we mark those "limited data" rather than guess.
Union local scales (IBEW & UA)
Where we have a published collective-bargaining scale, we show the union journeyman rate alongside BLS — currently IBEW (electrician) and UA (plumber/pipefitter) locals in a handful of cities. These are approximate and should be verified against the current agreement. We never name a union local or claim a union premium for a trade × state we don't hold a real scale for.
Verified peer submissions
Real pay submitted by workers, validated before it counts. We store only a hashed version of your email — never the address itself. Peer figures appear once we have enough verified submissions for a trade × state to be meaningful; until then, that feed stays empty rather than thin. Submit your pay to help build it.
What we don't have yet
Metro-level pay, apprentice-wage dollar ladders for most trades, and a 10-bucket distribution — these need data we haven't ingested. We'd rather say "coming soon" than publish a number we can't stand behind.
How we turn these into the numbers on each page: see the methodology.