TradeSalary

Ironworker salary in Trenton, NJ

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Ironworkers in the Trenton–Princeton, NJ area earn a median of $116,360 a year, or $55.94 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $122,060 a year. Across all of New Jersey, the median is $113,220, so Trenton pays 3% more than the state as a whole.

Median yearly pay$116,360
Bottom 10% under$99,830Top 10% over$122,060
Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
$48.00/hr
Jobs in this area
70
After cost of living
$112,770
Median hourly pay
$55.94/hr
vs U.S. median
+85%
vs New Jersey median
+3%
Mean (average) pay
$111,350 a year · $53.54 an hour
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 45940, Trenton-Princeton, NJ). 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 Trenton, NJ 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$48.00$99,830
25th percentile$51.23$106,560
Median (50th)$55.94$116,360
75th percentile$55.94$116,360
90th percentile$58.69$122,060

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

How Trenton, NJ compares

  • Trenton has the highest ironworker median of the 6 New Jersey metro areas with published pay.
  • Ironworkers are less concentrated in the Trenton area than nationally: 0.3 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.62 times the U.S. share.

Other New Jersey metro areas

Other trades in Trenton, NJ

Questions

Do ironworkers make more in Trenton or Philadelphia?
Trenton pays more: the median is $116,360 in Trenton and $103,330 in Philadelphia, a 13% 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 45940 (Trenton-Princeton, NJ). 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 (103.2, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures