Welder salary in Boston, MA-NH
Updated September 27, 2026 with BLS data from May 2025
Welders in the Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA-NH area earn a median of $63,770 a year, or $30.66 an hour, according to May 2025 BLS data. The highest-paid 10% make over $83,430 a year. Across all of Massachusetts, the median is $62,570, so Boston pays 2% more than the state as a whole.
- Entry-level starting pay (estimate)
- $23.57/hr
- Jobs in this area
- 2,210
- After cost of living
- $58,900
- Median hourly pay
- $30.66/hr
- vs U.S. median
- +19%
- vs Massachusetts median
- +2%
- Mean (average) pay
- $66,210 a year · $31.83 an hour
Pay by percentile
What welders in Boston, MA-NH 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.
| Percentile | Hourly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $23.57 | $49,030 |
| 25th percentile | $27.04 | $56,250 |
| Median (50th) | $30.66 | $63,770 |
| 75th percentile | $36.59 | $76,100 |
| 90th percentile | $40.11 | $83,430 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. BLS yearly figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours.
How Boston, MA-NH compares
- Boston has the highest welder median of the 4 Massachusetts metro areas with published pay.
- Welders are less concentrated in the Boston area than nationally: 0.8 of every 1,000 jobs, 0.31 times the U.S. share.
Other Massachusetts metro areas
Other trades in Boston, MA-NH
Questions
- Do welders make more in Boston or Worcester?
- Boston pays more: the median is $63,770 in Boston and $60,320 in Worcester, a 6% difference.
About this data
Wages are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, occupation 51-4121 (Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers), area code 14460 (Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH). BLS counts wage and salary workers only, so self-employed welders 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 (108.3, where the U.S. average is 100). Page updated September 27, 2026. How we calculate these figures