Methodology
How every figure is computed
The datasets below, their vintages, their sources, and the exact computation behind each derived figure on the site. The core wage dataset is BLS OEWS May 2025.
Datasets
Vintage is the reference period of the data, not the date it was added to the site. Grain is the finest level the source publishes; figures are never shown at a finer grain than their source.
| Dataset | Vintage | Source | Grain |
|---|---|---|---|
| OEWS wages, metro and national | May 2025 | BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics | 10 trades x 25 metros, plus national per trade |
| OEWS pay trends | May 2020 to May 2025 | BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics | same 10 x 25 cells, six releases |
| OEWS pay by industry | May 2025 | BLS OEWS national industry tables (4-digit NAICS) | national, per trade per industry |
| Job openings, national | 2025-2035 | BLS Employment Projections | national, per trade |
| Employment growth outlook | 2024-2034 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook | national, per trade |
| Job openings, by state | 2024-2034 | Projections Central (U.S. Dept. of Labor) | statewide, per trade |
| Benefit costs | June 2026 | BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Table 4 | national, by occupation group |
| Union wage premium | 2025 | BLS Union Membership release, Table 4 (CPS) | national, by occupation group |
| Fatal injury rates | 2024 | BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries | national, by occupation |
| Nonfatal injury rates | 2023-2024 | BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, Table R100 | national, by occupation |
| Median gross rent | 2024 | Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year, Table B25064 | per metro, all renters |
| Registered apprentices | FY2024 | U.S. Dept. of Labor, RAPIDS apprentice database | statewide, per trade |
| Regional price parities | 2024 | Bureau of Economic Analysis (via FRED) | per metro, all items |
| Related occupations and Job Zones | 31.0 | O*NET Database, U.S. Dept. of Labor (CC BY 4.0) | national, per occupation |
| County construction employment | 2025 annual | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages | per county, NAICS 23 |
| Monthly hiring demand | Aug 2026 | BLS Current Employment Statistics (API) | national, construction industry |
| State and federal tax parameters | 2026 | Tax Foundation 2026 state table; IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 | per state, single filer |
| Worker-submitted rates | ongoing | Collected on this site, reviewed before publication | per submission |
Computations
Take-home pay
Single filer, standard deduction, 2026 federal and state tax brackets, plus FICA. Gross pay is the hourly figure times 2,080 hours. No credits, no pre-tax deductions, and no local or city income taxes. Every result is an estimate, stated as one on the page.
Union wage premium
From BLS Current Population Survey Table 4: median weekly earnings of union members vs nonunion workers, by occupation group. The premium is (members minus nonunion) divided by nonunion. These are national occupation-group medians; the CPS publishes no metro-level union earnings. The selected metro changes only the state tax part of the take-home comparison. BLS cautions that the comparison does not control for age, firm size, industry, or geography.
Total compensation
BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation publishes wages plus five benefit categories per hour worked, by SOC major occupation group. The national benefit load for the trade's group is applied to the metro's median wage. Actual benefits vary by employer, union status, and firm size, so every figure is an estimate.
Rent burden
Monthly take-home is the estimated net annual pay divided by 12; rent burden is the metro's median gross rent divided by that figure. The 30% line is the standard HUD affordability guideline. Rents are metro-wide medians for all renters from the Census Bureau, not trade-specific.
Apprenticeship counts
Distinct apprentice IDs in the DOL Registered Apprenticeship FY2024 Active table, grouped by exact DOL occupation titles mapped to each trade, per state. Figures are statewide and are marked as such on metro pages. About one-third of apprentice records have no occupation listed, so trade-level counts understate the true pipeline.
Hiring demand
National openings come from BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035: average annual openings, labor-force exits, and occupational transfers. Total separations (exits plus transfers) is the BLS-published replacement figure; new jobs from growth are derived as openings minus separations and are marked as derived. State openings come from Projections Central 2024-2034 and are statewide.
Cost-of-living adjustment
BEA Regional Price Parities (2024, all items, US average = 100) adjust the BLS median: adjusted pay equals the median divided by (RPP / 100). Shown as a separate adjusted view, never mixed into the official BLS figures.
Pay trends
Five-year trends use the published May median for each release from 2020 to 2025. May 2024 figures are kept for year-over-year change. Years the BLS did not publish a median render as gaps in the chart; points are never connected across a gap.
What we don't do
No estimates where the source is silent. Where BLS published no figure for a trade and metro, the page shows a gap. Values are never interpolated, carried over from other years, or modeled.
No mixing of sources. Worker-submitted rates appear in their own section, separate from official figures. They are reviewed before publication and never folded into BLS medians.
No false precision. National and occupation-group figures are shown at the grain their source publishes. A national union premium is described as national; a statewide apprentice count is described as statewide.
No guarantees. Projected openings and growth rates are BLS and Projections Central projections, not promises. Percentiles shown are the percentiles BLS published, not values computed from an assumed distribution.