How much do construction managers make in Boston?
Construction Managers in Boston earn a median $75.23 an hour ($156,470 a year), according to BLS OEWS May 2025. That is down 0.1% since May 2024 and 36.1% above the national median of $55.28 an hour. The BLS counts 7,570 construction managers working in the city.
Median hourly pay
$75.23/hr
7,570 construction managers employed in the city
Mean hourly pay
$76.70/hr
Median annual pay
$156,470
full-time, 2,080 hrs
Mean annual pay
$159,530
full-time, 2,080 hrs
Jobs in Boston
7,570
10th percentile
$50.90/hr
10% earn less
25th percentile
$62.62/hr
a quarter earn less
75th percentile
$83.67/hr
a quarter earn more
90th percentile
$104.74/hr
top 10% earn more
Adjusted pay
Cost-of-living adjusted pay
$69.49/hr
The BLS OEWS May 2025 median for construction managers in Boston is $75.23/hr. The BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 index for the Boston area is 108.3 (US average = 100). Divided, the pay equals $69.49/hr. That is what the pay buys against the national average cost level.
In May 2026 dollars dollars (BLS CPI-U), the 2015 median was $73.05/hr; the 2025 median is $78.43/hr (up 7.4% after inflation).
See all 25 cities ranked by adjusted pay
BLS OEWS May 2025, adjusted with BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Official BLS figures are unchanged above.
Construction Managers pay trend in Boston, 2015 to 2025
Five years of official BLS median hourly pay.
+45.1% since May 2015
Dashed markers are years BLS didn’t publish this combination. Shown as gaps, never interpolated.
Take-home pay for Construction Managers in Boston
The BLS OEWS May 2025 median, $75.23 per hour, becomes a paycheck. Estimated after federal income tax, state income tax, and FICA.
Gross annual pay · $75.23/hr × 2,080 hrs
$156,478
- Federal income tax (est.)
- −$26,289
- Massachusetts income tax (est.)
- −$7,604
- FICA (Social Security + Medicare) (est.)
- −$11,971
Net annual take-home (est.)
$110,615
$4,254 per paycheck (biweekly, est.)
Effective tax rate 29.3%
Estimate for a single filer using the 2026 standard deduction: federal and Massachusetts income tax computed from actual 2026 rates and brackets, plus FICA. Excludes city wage taxes (such as New York City’s and Philadelphia’s), pre-tax deductions like 401(k) and health premiums, and tax credits. Actual take-home pay varies with filing status, deductions, and hours worked.
Total compensation for Construction Managers in Boston
Employers pay about $33.86 more per hour in benefits on top of the $75.23 median wage (health insurance, retirement, paid leave, and legally required costs), based on the national BLS average for this occupation group.
Estimated total compensation
≈ $109.09/hr
wages $75.23 + benefits ≈ $33.86/hr
Where the benefits go (est. $/hr)
- Wages$75.23/hr
- Legally required≈ $9.87/hr
- Insurance≈ $8.89/hr
- Retirement & savings≈ $5.54/hr
- Paid leave≈ $4.93/hr
- Supplemental pay≈ $4.61/hr
Estimate from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026, private industry workers: the national average benefit load for construction, extraction, farming, fishing, and forestry occupations, applied to the median wage for this city. Actual benefits vary by employer, union status, and firm size.
Rent vs pay for construction managers in Boston
The BLS OEWS May 2025 median, $75.23/hr, must cover the median rent. One month of median gross rent takes 28 hours of work at that wage. Rent is 22.7% of estimated take-home pay: under the 30% affordability line.
Hours of work to cover one month of median rent
28 hrs
$2,093/mo rent ÷ $75.23/hr median wage
Rent vs estimated monthly take-home pay
Rent is 22.7% of take-home pay. The standard affordability line is 30% (dashed).
Median rent trend, 2021-2024
Median gross rent rose from $1,718/mo in 2021 to $2,093/mo in 2024: +21.8%. Census ACS 1-year, Table B25064.
Rent burden by city, ranked
- 01St. Louis, MO16.0%$1,154/mo
- 02Detroit, MI18.3%$1,248/mo
- 03Minneapolis, MN19.1%$1,444/mo
- 04New York, NY20.0%$1,851/mo
- 05Philadelphia, PA20.3%$1,567/mo
- 06Seattle, WA20.5%$2,050/mo
- 07Chicago, IL20.6%$1,469/mo
- 08Portland, OR21.4%$1,767/mo
- 09Houston, TX21.6%$1,469/mo
- 10San Antonio, TX21.9%$1,422/mo
- 11Baltimore, MD22.1%$1,633/mo
- 12Boston, MA22.7%$2,093/mo
- 13Tampa, FL22.7%$1,776/mo
- 14Charlotte, NC23.8%$1,594/mo
- 15Atlanta, GA24.3%$1,770/mo
- 16Phoenix, AZ24.4%$1,819/mo
- 17Denver, CO24.7%$1,943/mo
- 18Sacramento, CA24.9%$1,904/mo
- 19Dallas-Fort Worth, TX25.2%$1,718/mo
- 20Miami, FL25.6%$2,083/mo
- 21San Francisco, CA25.8%$2,435/mo
- 22Orlando, FL26.6%$1,877/mo
- 23Washington, DC26.6%$2,037/mo
- 24Los Angeles, CA27.2%$2,114/mo
- 25San Diego, CA29.8%$2,336/mo
Median gross rent from the Census ACS 2024 1-year, Table B25064; pay from BLS OEWS May 2025; rent burden uses estimated take-home pay (2026 federal and state income tax plus FICA on the median wage). Rents are medians across Boston for all renters, not trade-specific, and take-home is an estimate for a single filer. Actual affordability varies with household size, neighborhood, and hours worked.
Relocation
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How to become a construction manager in Massachusetts
The Department of Labor does not publish apprentice counts for construction managers as a distinct occupation, so no number is shown. The way in is still a registered apprenticeship: paid on-the-job training combined with classroom instruction.
The path in
A registered apprenticeship is one paid route into the trade: paid on-the-job training combined with classroom instruction, run by an employer, union, or trade association and registered with the U.S. Department of Labor or a state apprenticeship agency. Programs typically run several years, and apprentices earn a wage that rises as their skills do. In licensed trades such as electrical and plumbing, apprenticeship hours usually count toward the state license.
Search open programs at Apprenticeship.gov, the Department of Labor’s apprenticeship site.
How construction managers pay in Boston compares to the national median
Construction Managers in Boston earn +36.1% more than the US median.
Hiring demand
Job openings for construction managers
1,210
Projected construction managers openings per year in Massachusetts, 2024 to 2034.
Nationally, BLS projects about 49,700 construction managers openings per year from 2025 to 2035. Most come from replacement, not new jobs: about 44,200 a year as workers retire or switch occupations, versus 5,500 a year from growth.
National: BLS Employment Projections, 2025-2035. State: Projections Central, 2024-2034.
Monthly demand signal
Construction hiring trend
8.36M
Construction workers employed in August 2026, up 1.5% from a year earlier.
Buildings (236)
up 1.5%
vs year earlier
Heavy and civil (237)
up 2.3%
vs year earlier
Specialty trades (238)
up 1.3%
vs year earlier
Production and nonsupervisory workers in construction averaged $39.36/hr in August 2026, up 5.0% from a year earlier. Supervisory pay is not included.
These are national construction-industry figures, not construction managers-specific. They describe demand, not pay for this trade.
BLS Current Employment Statistics, seasonally adjusted, through August 2026. The latest month is preliminary and subject to revision.
Where the jobs cluster
Construction job clusters in Boston
About 120k private construction workers across Boston. Top counties by construction employment:
These are construction-industry county figures, not construction managers-specific. Counties with suppressed BLS figures are not listed.
BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 2025 annual averages. Private construction (NAICS 23).
Pay by industry
Where construction managers earn the most
Top 8 of 94 published industries by national median hourly pay. These are national figures, not Boston pay.
Industry pay: BLS OEWS, May 2025. Industries with suppressed BLS figures are not listed.
Related trades
Related trades to compare
Entry difficulty: Job Zone 4: considerable preparation needed.
O*NET lists these occupations as related to construction managers, ranked by national median pay. Each link shows the same Boston page for that trade.
Related occupations and Job Zones: O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor.
Job concentration: Boston employs 1.1× as many construction managers per capita as the US average.
Construction Managers pay by city and trade: full rankings
Construction Managers pay by city: highest to lowest median
Median hourly pay in all 25 cities. The top 10 are highlighted.
Trade pay in Boston: all 17 trades ranked
Median hourly pay for all 17 trades in Boston, MA.
Construction Managers: compare two cities
Pick any two cities to compare construction managers pay side by side: nominal medians, the middle-50% spread, and cost-of-living adjusted figures.
City cmp.
Boston
MA · Construction Managers
$75.23/hr
Median hourly pay
p25 $62.62p75 $83.67
- Jobs in the city
- 7,570
- Cost-of-living adjustednew
- $69.49/hr
Adjusted with BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 (index 108.3; US avg = 100). Nominal BLS figures unchanged above.
City cmp.
New York
NY · Construction Managers
$75.96/hr
Median hourly pay
p25 $57.03p75 $97.25
- Jobs in the city
- 12,120
- Cost-of-living adjustednew
- $67.48/hr
Adjusted with BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 (index 112.6; US avg = 100). Nominal BLS figures unchanged above.
Relocation
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Openings
Find construction managers jobs in Boston
Job boards carry current openings with posted pay. Use the BLS figures above to judge whether an offer is fair.
What construction managers in Boston say they make
Checking for worker-submitted rates…
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Frequently asked questions about construction managers pay in Boston
Where does Trade Salaries get its pay data?
From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release: an employer survey covering millions of workers. Worker-submitted figures come from tradespeople who anonymously shared their pay on this site.
What is the difference between median and mean pay?
The median is the middle of the pay scale: half of construction managers in Boston earn more, half earn less. The mean is the arithmetic average, which a few very high earners can pull upward. When comparing job offers, the median is the more useful number.
What do pay percentiles (p10, p25, p75, p90) mean?
They mark points on the pay scale. Ten percent of workers earn less than p10. A quarter earn less than p25 and a quarter earn more than p75. Ten percent earn more than p90. The p25 to p75 range covers the middle half of workers, a realistic band for experienced hires.
Has construction managers pay in Boston changed since last year?
The median hourly pay for construction managers in Boston is down 0.1% compared with May 2024, according to BLS OEWS. That is the official year-over-year change. The BLS publishes new wage data once a year, so this is the latest official comparison available. Worker-submitted rates, when posted, can reflect more recent conditions.
What is a location quotient?
It measures how concentrated a trade is in a city. Boston employs 1.1× as many construction managers per capita as the US average. Above 1.0 means the trade is over-represented locally; below 1.0 means under-represented. The figure comes from BLS OEWS May 2025.
How are hourly and annual pay figures related?
BLS annual figures assume full-time, year-round work: 40 hours a week times 52 weeks, or 2,080 hours. The annual number is the hourly rate multiplied by 2,080. Overtime, bonuses, and unpaid time off are not included, so actual take-home pay varies with hours worked.
How current is the pay data?
The official figures are from BLS OEWS May 2025, the latest full release. The BLS publishes new wage data once a year, usually the following spring. Worker-submitted rates update continuously as people add them, and reflect current conditions more quickly than the annual survey.
How do I submit my pay anonymously?
Use the Add your rate form. It takes about 30 seconds and asks for no name, email, or account. Your trade, city, experience, and pay are all you enter. Submissions are reviewed before they appear publicly on the matching rate pages.
How do I become a construction manager in Massachusetts?
Through a registered apprenticeship: paid on-the-job training plus classroom instruction, typically lasting several years, with wages that rise as you learn. The Department of Labor doesn't publish apprentice counts for construction managers as a distinct occupation. Search open programs at Apprenticeship.gov.
Do union construction managers earn more?
The BLS doesn't publish union-earnings figures for this occupation group as a distinct category.
Construction Managers pay in other cities
How does Boston compare nationally? See the 2026 state of trade pay report: fastest-growing wages, biggest city pay premiums, and union gaps, computed from official BLS data.