# Plumber Hourly Rate: What Plumbers Charge Per Hour in 2026

Canonical URL: https://www.simplywise.com/blog/plumber-hourly-rate/
Plain text: https://www.simplywise.com/blog/plumber-hourly-rate/llms.txt
Publisher: SimplyWise, Inc. (https://www.simplywise.com)
Published: September 8, 2026
Updated: October 23, 2026
Category: Project Cost Guides
Summary: Plumber hourly rate built from the federal wage table up: the percentile spread, what payroll tax adds, and a builder that prices your own rate.

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## Plumber Hourly Rate: What Plumbers Charge Per Hour in 2026

A plumber hourly rate is a wage with four more things stacked on it. Pick the wage and the builder shows what the hour has to cover.

Start at the wage

Base hourly wage

Federal wage percentiles, plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters, May 2025

Or your own wage ($/hr)

Workers comp ($ per $100 payroll)

Overhead and margin (%) Applied to loaded cost, never the bare wage

$33.04 to $43.84 the cost of a $30.67 wage hour

Base wage, median plumber$30.67

Social Security and Medicare, 7.65%$2.35

Federal unemployment, 0.6% on the first $7,000$0.02

Mandatory federal floor$33.04

Workers comp on that wagefrom your policy

Your rate with overhead and marginadd your percent

Federal figures, updated Aug 28, 2026. Low end is payroll tax only. High end is what the average private employer paid per wage dollar.

At a glance

1. Federal data puts plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters at a $30.67 median hourly wage in May 2025, mean $34.70.
2. The honest range is the spread: $21.22 at the 10th percentile, $52.13 at the 90th, a 2.5x gap.
3. Those are wages paid. A plumber hourly rate is billed, and it starts above the wage, never at it.
4. Payroll tax adds 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare, plus 0.6% federal unemployment on the first $7,000.
5. Workers comp, liability, benefits, overhead, and margin come off your own books. No published multiplier replaces them.

## What the plumber hourly rate data actually says

Every plumber hourly rate starts life as a wage. The Bureau of Labor Statistics samples employer payroll records by occupation, and its May 2025 release puts plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters at a $30.67 median hourly wage and a $34.70 mean, across 465,840 workers.

Read the occupation title closely. That code covers pipefitters and steamfitters too, so it is not a plumbing only figure, and it counts payroll employees, leaving out the owner running one truck.

## The wage spread under a plumber hourly rate

| Percentile | Hourly wage | Usually |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 10th | $21.22 | Apprentice, helper |
| 25th | $24.13 | Early journeyman |
| Median | $30.67 | Middle of the trade |
| 75th | $40.92 | Experienced journeyman |
| 90th | $52.13 | Master, service lead |

The 90th percentile plumber earns about 2.5 times the 10th. Any guide quoting one national plumber hourly rate averages that gap away. Pick the percentile that matches who is holding the wrench.

## From wage to rate: what stacks on the hour

Two lines are exact and published. Social Security and Medicare run 7.65% of the wage. Federal unemployment runs an effective 0.6% on the first $7,000 a worker earns, or $42 a year.

Everything above those comes off paperwork only you have. Workers comp is quoted per $100 of payroll, priced by trade class, state, and claims history. Liability is allocated per labor hour, benefits land on top. Our labor burden guide (https://www.simplywise.com/blog/what-is-labor-burden-in-construction/) works the full stack.

Then the divisor nobody adjusts. A worker you pay for 2,080 hours does not bill 2,080. Drive time, shop time, and paid leave come out, and the burden spreads over what is left. Lower the productive hours and the true cost of an hour rises.

## Put the loaded rate on a quote

SimplyWise Cost Estimator turns a job site 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, with a 7-day free trial.

## What the load measures out at

No published multiplier turns a wage into a billed plumber hourly rate. Burden, overhead, and margin move by state, trade class, and insurance, so any single number stated as fact is a guess wearing a citation.

What is measured is the employer side. In March 2026 the federal Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release put total compensation for private industry workers at $46.60 an hour worked, of which $32.60 was wages and $14.01 benefits. Roughly 43 cents of employer cost per wage dollar, before overhead or margin.

Construction runs above that average, because workers comp in the trades is among the most expensive anywhere. So treat the builder as a floor. Its low end is what the law adds, its high end is what an average employer already pays, and your number sits above both.

## Build your plumber hourly rate in this order

1. Pick the wage you actually pay Use the percentile matching the worker. An apprentice and a service lead are not the same rate.
2. Add the two exact federal lines Social Security and Medicare at 7.65%, federal unemployment at 0.6% on the first $7,000.
3. Pull workers comp and liability off your own policy Your carrier prices it per $100 of payroll by trade class. Nobody publishes it for you.
4. Divide by productive hours, then add overhead and margin Spread the loaded cost over the hours you really bill, then add overhead and margin.

Once the rate holds, structure comes next: flat rate vs hourly plumbing pricing (https://www.simplywise.com/blog/flat-rate-vs-hourly-plumbing-pricing/) for the choice, and the plumbing service pricing guide (https://www.simplywise.com/blog/plumbing-service-pricing-guide/) for trip charges and job ranges.

## Keep reading

- Flat Rate vs Hourly Plumbing Pricing (https://www.simplywise.com/blog/flat-rate-vs-hourly-plumbing-pricing/)
- Contractor Hourly Labor Rates by Trade (https://www.simplywise.com/blog/contractor-hourly-labor-rates-by-trade/)
- What Is Labor Burden in Construction (https://www.simplywise.com/blog/what-is-labor-burden-in-construction/)
- Plumbing Service Pricing Guide (https://www.simplywise.com/blog/plumbing-service-pricing-guide/)
- Construction Calculators for Contractors (https://www.simplywise.com/blog/construction-calculators/)

## Sources

- BLS, OEWS May 2025 national occupation profiles (https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm) (47-2152 plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters: $34.70 mean, $30.67 median, percentiles $21.22 / $24.13 / $40.92 / $52.13, 465,840 employed; 2026-08-28).
- BLS, OEWS May 2025 national data download (https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) (same figures, 2026-08-28).
- IRS, Topic No. 751 (https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc751) (employer 6.2% and 1.45%, 7.65% combined).
- IRS, Topic No. 759 (https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc759) (6.0% on the first $7,000, effective 0.6% with the state credit).
- BLS, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm) (March 2026: $46.60 total, $32.60 wages, $14.01 benefits).
- SimplyWise, Contractor Hourly Labor Rates by Trade (https://www.simplywise.com/blog/contractor-hourly-labor-rates-by-trade/) (cross check, 2026-08-28).
- SimplyWise Cost Estimator, App Store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/simplywise-cost-estimator/id6670619664) (4.8 rating, 2026-08-28).

## Common questions on plumber rates

**What is the average plumber hourly rate?**

Federal data puts plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters at a $30.67 median and $34.70 mean hourly wage in May 2025. Those are wages paid. A billed rate starts above them.

**Why is the plumber hourly rate I charge higher than the wage I pay?**

A wage is one line inside the cost of an hour. Social Security and Medicare add 7.65%, federal unemployment 0.6% on the first $7,000, and workers comp, liability, benefits, overhead, and margin sit above it.

**Is there a standard multiplier for turning a plumber wage into a rate?**

No single multiplier is safe to state as fact. Burden, overhead, and margin vary by state, trade class, and insurance. What holds is the sequence: real wage, federal lines, your own policy costs, then overhead and margin.

**What do plumbers earn at the top and bottom of the trade?**

In the May 2025 release the 10th percentile hourly wage is $21.22 and the 90th is $52.13, with the 25th at $24.13 and the 75th at $40.92. The top earns about 2.5 times the bottom.

**Does the federal wage figure cover only plumbers?**

No. The code groups plumbers with pipefitters and steamfitters, across every industry that employs them. Self employed owners sit outside the survey.

**Can SimplyWise price a plumbing job from a photo?**

Yes. SimplyWise Cost Estimator turns a photo into an itemized estimate in about 6 seconds, with material, labor, and fee lines you can edit. It does not set your rate. Free to try.

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