Pay Guide · Roofing
How Much Do Roofers Make? The Published Numbers, Then the Real Ones
Roofing pay has a published answer, and almost nobody quotes the part that matters. Here is the full wage spread, the state range, and the walk to a billed crew hour.
Pricing a roof this week? Estimate it from a photo.
How much do roofers make, by the federal wage table
Roofers are occupation 47-2181 in the federal wage survey. The May 2025 national release counts 135,490 of them at a $27.95 mean hourly wage, $58,140 a year. The median, the better number to argue from, is $26.65 an hour and $55,440 a year.
Read the scope line before you lean on it. The survey samples employers and skips the self employed, so the owner with his name on the truck is nowhere in it. This is what a roofing company pays the person nailing the shingle.
The spread is the story, not the average
| Percentile | Hourly wage | Annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $18.01 | $37,460 |
| 25th | $22.24 | $46,260 |
| Median | $26.65 | $55,440 |
| 75th | $31.44 | $65,390 |
| 90th | $39.29 | $81,720 |
A roofer at the 90th percentile earns more than twice one at the 10th. Quote the $58,140 mean in a hiring conversation and you insult both ends of your crew at once.
SimplyWise Cost Estimator writes labor and material lines you can edit, straight from a photo.
Why the annual column is thinner than it looks
Multiply any hourly figure in that table by 2,080 and you land on the annual figure beside it. $26.65 times 2,080 is $55,432 against a published median of $55,440, and that $8 is rounding: the hourly figure is published to the cent, the annual to the nearest ten. The survey states the convention itself. That is how the annual column gets built, and it assumes 40 hours every week of the year.
Roofing does not work that way. Rain stops a tear off, so do ice and high wind, and a July roof in Phoenix ends at noon. Drop six working weeks to weather, an input you should replace with your own, and that roofer lands nearer $49,000.
Where the roof sits moves pay more than seniority does
Geography moves the mean more than the step up to foreman does. These are state hourly means from the same release, pulled state by state rather than scaled down from the national figure.
| State | Hourly mean | Against national |
|---|---|---|
| Illinois | $37.33 | plus $9.38 |
| New Jersey | $35.76 | plus $7.81 |
| Massachusetts | $35.09 | plus $7.14 |
| National | $27.95 | baseline |
| Texas | $22.69 | minus $5.26 |
| Mississippi | $21.77 | minus $6.18 |
Illinois pays $15.56 an hour more than Mississippi on the mean, roughly $32,000 over a 2,080 hour year. Cost of living eats some of that. Union density eats some of it too. Neither eats all of it.
Price the crew hour, not the wage
SimplyWise Cost Estimator turns a photo into an itemized estimate in about 6 seconds, with material, labor and fee lines you can edit. It is $29.99/mo or $239.99/yr, about $20/mo on annual, with a 7-day free trial.
From a roofer’s wage to a billed crew hour
No customer ever pays $26.65 an hour. That is one line inside the cost of putting a roofer on a roof. Here is the walk, on stated inputs you should swap for your own. A worked illustration, not market data.
| Step | Change | Runs to |
|---|---|---|
| Median wage, one hour | starting input | $26.65 |
| Employer payroll tax at 7.65% | plus $2.04 | $28.69 |
| Only 30 of 40 paid hours reach the roof | divide by 0.75 | $38.25 |
| Workers compensation, roofing class code | your own rate | not priced |
| Margin at 20% of the price | divide by 0.80 | $47.81 |
Only one line there is a published federal figure: the employer half of social security and Medicare, 6.2 percent plus 1.45 percent. Every other input is yours.
Argue with the third line first, because most shops never measure it. Load out, drive, staging a tear off, dump runs and weather holds are hours you pay for and no customer funds. Move that fraction to 0.65 and the hour bills $55.17.
The workers compensation row is blank on purpose. Workers compensation is priced per $100 of payroll by class code, by state and by your own claims history. No national figure is worth printing. Liability, the dumpster, equipment and office time are missing too, so treat $47.81 as a floor.
What legitimately moves a roofer’s pay
Slope changes the work and the exposure, and the safety rules put the line at 4 in 12. At or below that pitch a roof is low slope; above it the roof is steep. Anyone 6 feet or more above a lower level needs fall protection either way. On a steep roof the options narrow to guardrails with toeboards, safety nets or a personal fall arrest system. Slower work bills higher.
Crew role is the next real step. First line supervisors of construction trades ran a $38.42 median hourly wage and $79,920 a year, against $26.65 for the roofers they run. That step is worth close to $12 an hour.
Keep reading
Sources
Wages
- BLS wage statistics, bulk series (47-2181, May 2025; read 2026-09-11). Hourly mean
OEUN000000000000047218103, hourly medianOEUN000000000000047218108, IllinoisOEUS170000000000047218103. - O*NET OnLine, 47-2181.00 (corroborates $26.65 and $55,440; read 2026-09-11).
- BLS OEWS questions and answers (annual estimates assume a 2,080 hour year; read 2026-09-11).
Payroll tax
- IRS Tax Topic 751 (employer share 6.2% plus 1.45%; read 2026-09-11).
Safety rules
- 29 CFR 1926.500 (steep and low slope defined at 4 in 12; read 2026-09-11).
- 29 CFR 1926.501 (fall protection at 6 feet; read 2026-09-11).
Product
- SimplyWise Cost Estimator, App Store (4.8; read 2026-09-11).
Common questions on roofer pay
The published numbers
How much do roofers make an hour?
The May 2025 release puts roofers at a $26.65 median hourly wage and a $27.95 mean. The middle half sits between $22.24 and $31.44.
How much do roofers make a year?
The published annual median is $55,440 and the mean is $58,140. Both are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours, so they assume full time work all year.
Which state pays roofers the most?
Illinois, at a $37.33 hourly mean. Mississippi is lowest among the states at $21.77, a gap of $15.56 an hour.
Turning pay into a price
Do these figures include self employed roofers?
No. The survey samples employers and excludes the self employed, so an owner operator is nowhere in it.
What should a roofing crew hour bill at?
No publisher states a sound national figure, so build your own. Start at the wage and add 7.65% payroll tax. Divide by the share of paid hours that reach the roof, then add workers compensation and margin.
Does a roofing foreman make much more than a roofer?
Yes. First line supervisors of construction trades ran a $38.42 median hourly wage and $79,920 a year, close to $12 above the roofer median.
Put your real crew hour on the quote.
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