TradeSalary

Ironworker salary in Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Ironworkers in the Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD area earn a median of $103,330 a year, or $49.68 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $121,440 a year. That's 25% more than the Pennsylvania median of $82,970.

Median yearly pay$103,330
Bottom 10% under$52,750Top 10% over$121,440
Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
$25.36/hr
Jobs in this area
800
After cost of living
$100,760
Median hourly pay
$49.68/hr
vs U.S. median
+65%
vs Pennsylvania median
+25%
Mean (average) pay
$92,840 a year · $44.63 an hour
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 37980, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD). 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 Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD 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$25.36$52,750
25th percentile$31.92$66,390
Median (50th)$49.68$103,330
75th percentile$53.21$110,690
90th percentile$58.38$121,440

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

How Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD compares

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

Other Pennsylvania metro areas

Other trades in Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD

Questions

Do ironworkers make more in Philadelphia or Allentown?
Philadelphia pays more: the median is $103,330 in Philadelphia and $83,630 in Allentown, a 24% 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 37980 (Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD). 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 (102.6, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures