Updated May 2026 · BLS OEWS 2024
Skilled Trade Salaries in Washington
Skilled-trade workers in Washington earn an average median wage of $84,522 across 43 trades and 1 BLS-tracked metro, based on 2024 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The top-paying trade in the state is Construction Manager at $138,970.
See full Washington trade rankings →How Washington Compares Nationally
Washington runs 30% above the U.S. trade-wage average, with metros there averaging $84,522 across the tracked trades. The premium reflects either dense urban demand, a strong union footprint in the state's larger metros, or specialty industrial concentration — most often a combination of all three. Cost of living in the state's bigger cities tends to absorb part of that premium.
The highest-paying trade in Washington is Construction Manager at a median $138,970, followed by Elevator Mechanic at $137,040. The gap between the top two trades — $1,930 — is a useful gauge of how concentrated the state's high-pay opportunities are. A wide gap means a single specialized trade dominates the top of the market; a narrow gap signals broad-based wage strength across multiple skilled occupations.
Washington has a single metropolitan statistical area tracked in BLS OEWS data. That means trade wages here are effectively a one-metro reading — the figures below describe pay in that metro rather than a state-wide blend, which is the most reliable approach BLS OEWS supports for comparison.
Washington Metro Areas
Trade Salaries in Washington
How These Numbers Are Calculated
Every wage figure on this page comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program, published annually at bls.gov/oes. State-level figures aggregate the metropolitan readings across Washington's 1 tracked metro, weighted equally per metro to avoid over-counting any single labor market. The Trade Pay Score combines raw median pay (30%), 5-year wage growth (25%), employment depth (25%), and cost-of-living-adjusted purchasing power (20%); for the full composite see the methodology page.
Career outlook detail — projected employment growth, typical entry-level requirements, on-the-job training expectations — comes from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook at bls.gov/ooh. Apprenticeship program listings for Washington are maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor at apprenticeship.gov. All three are public-domain federal data sources.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average skilled-trade wage in Washington?
Across 43 skilled trades and 1 BLS-tracked metro, Washington posts an average median wage of $84,522 per 2024 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data. Pay varies substantially by trade — from $49,470 (Insulation Worker) at the low end to $138,970 (Construction Manager) at the top.
Which trade pays the most in Washington?
Construction Manager is the highest-paying trade in Washington, with a state-wide median wage of $138,970 across 1 tracked metro. The next-best is Elevator Mechanic at $137,040. Both reflect demand patterns specific to the state's economy — see the per-trade pages for city-level detail.
Are union or non-union trades better paid in Washington?
BLS OEWS does not split wages by union status, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes separate union-membership and earnings data at https://www.bls.gov/cps/. In broad terms, union trades pay 8-39% more than non-union counterparts in the same trade and metro, with the largest premiums in electrical, mechanical, and ironwork. State-level union density varies — northeastern and Pacific states typically run highest.
Where can I find apprenticeships in Washington?
Registered apprenticeship programs in Washington are listed on the U.S. Department of Labor's apprenticeship.gov site at https://www.apprenticeship.gov/, which lets you filter by state and occupation. Most skilled trades require 3-5 years of registered apprenticeship before reaching journeyman pay; the apprenticeship pages on TradeWages list year-by-year pay progression as a percentage of journeyman scale.
How does the cost of living affect trade pay in Washington?
Cost of living shifts substantially across Washington's metros — the state has a single tracked metro, so cost-of-living variation is captured in that one reading. The Trade Pay Score on each city page weights cost-of-living-adjusted purchasing power at 20% of the composite, so a trade with strong nominal pay in an expensive metro can still earn a lower grade than a more affordable metro with mid-range nominal wages.
Skilled-trade workers in Washington earn an average median wage of $84,522 across 43 trades and 1 BLS-tracked metro, based on 2024 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The top-paying trade in the state is Construction Manager at $138,970.
The this entity record above pulls directly from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey. What follows is the per-entity context — how this entity sits in the broader U.S. skilled-trade wage data distribution and which underlying factors drive the headline numbers.
Every number on this page links back to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey; the methodology page describes the inputs, refresh cadence, and known limitations of the underlying data product.
Practical use of this page is in combination with the comparison and ranking pages elsewhere on the site, which surface the same data for this entity’s peers within U.S. trades, cities, and states. A single-entity reading without peer context can be misleading when an entity is an outlier on one axis but typical on another.