TradeSalary

Plumber salary in Watertown, NY

Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025

Plumbers in the Watertown–Fort Drum, NY area earn a median of $61,490 a year, or $29.56 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The top 10% earn more than $141,800. Across all of New York, the median is $77,490, so Watertown pays 21% less than the state as a whole.

Median yearly pay$61,490
Bottom 10% under$39,230Top 10% over$141,800
Apprentice starting pay (estimate)
$18.86/hr
Jobs in this area
100
After cost of living
$70,120
Median hourly pay
$29.56/hr
vs U.S. median
−4%
vs New York median
−21%
Mean (average) pay
$74,000 a year · $35.58 an hour
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (area 48060, Watertown-Fort Drum, NY). Excludes self-employed plumbers. 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 plumbers in Watertown, NY 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$18.86$39,230
25th percentile$21.63$45,000
Median (50th)$29.56$61,490
75th percentile$41.46$86,230
90th percentile$68.18$141,800

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

How Watertown, NY compares

  • Watertown has the lowest plumber median of the 13 New York metro areas with published pay.
  • Plumbers are less concentrated in the Watertown area than nationally: 2.5 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.84 times the U.S. share.

Other New York metro areas

Other trades in Watertown, NY

Questions

Do plumbers make more in Watertown or New York?
New York pays more: the median is $61,490 in Watertown and $78,610 in New York, a 22% difference.

About this data

Wages are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, occupation 47-2152 (Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters), area code 48060 (Watertown-Fort Drum, NY). BLS counts wage and salary workers only, so self-employed plumbers 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 (87.7, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures