TradeSalary

Ironworker salary in Los Angeles, CA

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Ironworkers in the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim, CA area earn a median of $78,040 a year, or $37.52 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $110,200 a year. That's 2% more than the California median of $76,370.

Median yearly pay$78,040
Bottom 10% under$47,000Top 10% over$110,200
Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
$22.59/hr
Jobs in this area
2,150
After cost of living
$68,720
Median hourly pay
$37.52/hr
vs U.S. median
+24%
vs California median
+2%
Mean (average) pay
$81,100 a year · $38.99 an hour
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 31080, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA). Excludes self-employed ironworkers. Cost of living: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024. *Starting pay is estimated from the 10th percentile; BLS does not report pay by license level.

Pay by percentile

What ironworkers in Los Angeles, CA earn at each point of the pay range, May 2025: 10% earn less than the 10th percentile, half earn less than the median, and 10% earn more than the 90th.

PercentileHourlyYearly
10th percentile$22.59$47,000
25th percentile$28.83$59,960
Median (50th)$37.52$78,040
75th percentile$50.03$104,060
90th percentile$52.98$110,200

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.

How Los Angeles, CA compares

  • Los Angeles ranks 6th of 15 California metro areas for ironworker pay.
  • Ironworkers are less concentrated in the Los Angeles area than nationally: 0.3 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.78 times the U.S. share.

Other California metro areas

Other trades in Los Angeles, CA

Questions

Do ironworkers make more in Los Angeles or San Jose?
San Jose pays more: the median is $78,040 in Los Angeles and $109,440 in San Jose, a 29% difference.

About this data

Wages are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, occupation 47-2221 (Structural Iron and Steel Workers), area code 31080 (Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA). BLS counts wage and salary workers only, so self-employed ironworkers and business owners aren't included. The cost-of-living figure divides the median by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity for 2024 (113.6, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures