Plumbing is the licensed trade people underestimate and the market keeps proving right: a $63,800 median that edges out even electrical, 7% growth across a huge installed base, and a licence ladder that pays for the apprenticeship years you spend climbing it. The cost is the same as any licensed trade — time — plus joints, crawlspaces, and the occasional 2 a.m. flood.
The math that decides it
The median annual wage was $63,800 in May 2025, or $30.67 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — the highest median among the trades in this series, $610 above the electrician and $10,050 above the welder. Like electrical, the median is the floor of a licence ladder, not its ceiling: journeymen, masters, and contractors all climb past it.
The honest framing: plumbing is welding’s money with electrical’s moat. It costs years instead of months, and then the licence does the protecting for the rest of your career.
What the apprenticeship really costs
Entry runs through a registered apprenticeship — high school diploma, paid hours, classroom time, competitive entry — and, unlike electrical, some states route the licence through journeyman exams with shorter paths for documented experience. The real cost is the apprentice years: paid, but below the scale you are training to earn.
Set that against HVAC’s months-long certificates and welding’s six-to-eighteen-month routes: plumbing pays last among the three, then keeps paying structure — negotiated scale, pension in the union shops, and a licence that legally caps who can compete.
What the growth actually is
Employment is projected to grow 7 percent from 2025 to 2035 across roughly 510,600 jobs — the largest installed base in the trades part of this series — with about 42,000 openings a year, most replacing workers who retire or leave. Aging housing stock, new construction, and water-efficiency retrofits all feed the same pipe.
The 7% is not electrification’s 9% or HVAC’s 11%, but the base is enormous and the licence throttles new supply, so growth converts into steady hiring rather than wage pressure.
Where the money actually goes up
Three rungs move pay above the median, and all three are structural:
- The licence ladder. Journeyman and master plumbers out-earn the median by definition; the licence restricts competition at every rung.
- Specialization. Pipefitting, steamfitting, medical gas, and commercial service work all command premiums over residential repair.
- Ownership. Plumbing businesses are the classic trades exit — recurring service relationships, emergency pricing power, and demand that does not wait for the economy.
The nearest benchmarks for the decision are electrician vs plumber for the two licence ladders side by side, plumber vs welder for the licence’s wage against travel money, and HVAC technician vs plumber for commission seasons against apprenticeship scale.
So is it worth it?
Worth it if: you can commit to an apprenticeship with competitive entry, you want the trade’s highest median with a licence moat behind it, you can handle the physical demands — joints, crawlspaces, wet work — or ownership in a trade with recurring service demand is your goal.
Not worth it if: you need income this year, the licence ladder’s pace would frustrate you, or the physical side — knees, backs, and the wet jobs nobody volunteers for — is a hard limit. In those cases the comparisons that matter are plumber vs welder for the fast-entry alternative and is becoming a welder worth it for the six-to-eighteen-month route.
Questions people ask before deciding
Four questions decide this for most people. The short answers are below; the sections above have the numbers.
How much does a plumber make?
The median was $63,800 a year, or $30.67 an hour, in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — the highest trade median in this series. And unlike most medians, this one is a floor: the licence ladder above it is what makes the figure durable rather than a ceiling.
How long does it take to become a plumber?
A registered apprenticeship measured in years, with paid hours and classroom time and competitive entry; some states shorten the path for documented experience and journeyman exams. It is slower than HVAC’s months or welding’s certificate routes — the years are the price of the moat that protects the wage afterwards.
Is plumbing hard on the body?
Differently hard, not less. The wear lands on knees, backs, and shoulders through crawlspaces, overhead work, and wet conditions, rather than welding’s heat and fumes or electrical’s ladders and attics. Which damage suits you is personal — the trade-vs-trade comparisons, electrician vs plumber and plumber vs welder, break the wear down side by side.
Is plumbing recession-proof?
About as close as trades get. Repairs cannot be deferred forever, service relationships recur, and the 510,600-job base means work is spread across maintenance, construction, and retrofit rather than one cycle. Growth of 7% is moderate, but the licence throttles new supply, so the openings — about 42,000 a year — keep landing on licensed hands. To decide between the licensed routes, work through the three-question self-test in our electrician comparison.
Sources
Wage, employment, growth, and openings figures: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters, median pay as of May 2025, projections 2025–2035, checked November 2026. Apprenticeship and licensure details reflect Department of Labor registered-apprenticeship standards and state licensing boards. How we choose and check sources is described in our editorial policy.