Mostly, no — the two names describe one pipe-trade family, and the difference is a specialisation.
BLS describes pipefitters and steamfitters together as installing and maintaining pipes that may carry chemicals, acids, and gases, then adds that steamfitters specialize in systems for liquids or gases at high pressure.
This page unpacks that steam specialisation, why the titles pair in union locals and apprenticeship names, where licensing splits (New York City and Massachusetts), and what the pay data can and cannot show.
Pipefitter vs steamfitter: the short answer
The one-sentence version: a steamfitter is the high-pressure branch of the pipefitting family.
BLS describes both titles as installing and maintaining pipes that may carry chemicals, acids, and gases, mostly in manufacturing, commercial, and industrial settings — and then splits them on one line: steamfitters "specialize in systems that are designed for the flow of liquids or gases at high pressure."
Same craft, narrower medium.
The union treats them as two named trades under one roof; in the two states in our research that license this work by name — Massachusetts and Minnesota — the licence is called pipefitter.
| Pipefitter | Steamfitter | |
|---|---|---|
| BLS scope | Installs and maintains pipes that may carry chemicals, acids, and gases — the description BLS applies to both titles | The same work, specialized in systems designed for the flow of liquids or gases at high pressure |
| Settings (BLS) | Mostly manufacturing, commercial, and industrial — stated for both titles | |
| Union | The United Association lists pipefitters and steamfitters as separate named trades; NYC's steamfitters have their own local | |
| Federal data | One occupation — 47-2152, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters | |
| Median pay (May 2025) | $63,800 a year for the combined occupation; no separate pipefitter or steamfitter wage exists | |
The "one occupation" point runs deeper than the table.
O*NET merged the old Pipe Fitters and Steamfitters code (47-2152.01) and the old Plumber code (47-2152.02) into a single occupation, 47-2152.00, and retired the old codes as "no longer in use" — so federally there is one occupation here, not two.
Each trade's full picture lives in its own guide: our pipefitter career guide and steamfitter career guide.
The steam specialisation
BLS's description covers both titles at once: pipes that may carry chemicals, acids, and gases, mostly in manufacturing, commercial, and industrial settings.
The split comes in the specialization clause — steamfitters work on systems "designed for the flow of liquids or gases at high pressure."
The dividing line between the two names is pressure and the fluid being moved, not a different set of job sites.
The United Association's description of its own steamfitters fills in the systems list: fabricating, installing, maintaining, and repairing high-pressure systems that move steam, hot water, and other industrial fluids — chilled water and compressed air included — with welding, rigging, and hydrostatic and pneumatic testing in the work.
Read the two descriptions together and the naming follows the scope: steamfitter is the narrow name — both BLS and the UA attach it to high-pressure systems — while pipefitter sits inside the shared description of process piping, pipes that may carry chemicals, acids, and gases, of which steam is one service.
The third title in this family, plumber, covers the water and gas piping people use — where that line sits is its own question, and it is drawn in our plumber vs steamfitter comparison.
Union naming: one union, paired trade names
The titles are both live names inside the same union.
The United Association lists its trades as pipefitters and steamfitters — separate entries, alongside plumbers, sprinkler fitters, pipeliners, welders, HVACR service technicians, and the metal trades — and says it represents approximately 409,000 members across North America.
Some locals carry one name on the door: the Enterprise Association of Steamfitters Local 638 is the NYC steamfitters' union.
Registered apprenticeship trade names pair the titles freely.
New York State's Department of Labor approved trades include Plumber and Steamfitter (51–60 months) and Plumber and Pipefitter (54 months) — and a standalone Steamfitter trade, 51–60 months, on its mechanical list.
Names vary by local and program — ask the local hall where you want to work.
What a local actually covers, and how you get in and get dispatched, is mechanics rather than naming — our union pipefitter guide covers the hall, dispatch, and travel cards.
Licensing: New York City and Massachusetts
Licensing is where the naming split gets concrete.
In the two states in our research that license this work by name, Massachusetts and Minnesota, the licence is called pipefitter.
Massachusetts licenses pipefitters by name: the state Bureau of Pipefitters, Refrigeration Technicians and Sprinkler Fitters, within OPSI, issues the journeyman pipefitter licence.
It takes 6,000 hours as a licensed OPSI pipefitter apprentice under a Massachusetts master pipefitter, plus 450 hours of approved instruction (or equivalent out-of-state experience the Bureau approves), then an OPSI exam; the application fee is $75.
From November 9, 2026, all journeyman pipefitter applicants must complete the standardized pathway adopted November 8, 2024 in 528 CMR 11 — a Bureau-approved 450-hour course and at least 6,000 clock hours as a licensed apprentice — with a hardship waiver for the old pathway.
Minnesota makes the naming point from the other side: the state licences that cover high-pressure steam and process piping are named pipefitter — master and journeyworker pipefitters, issued by the Department of Labor and Industry.
The licence for steam work is called pipefitter, not steamfitter.
New York City sits at the other extreme: it licenses neither title.
The Department of Buildings' skilled-trade licence list runs to Electrician, High Pressure Boiler Operating Engineer, Master Plumber & Master Fire Suppression Piping Contractor, and Oil Burner Equipment Installer, among others — no pipefitter or steamfitter licence.
High-pressure work in the city runs through other credentials instead — the High Pressure Boiler Operating Engineer licence, the oil burner installer licence, and FDNY refrigeration certificates of fitness — and the Enterprise Association of Steamfitters Local 638 (UA) is the NYC steamfitters' union.
Licensing is state and local — confirm before you rely on it
Pay: one number for both titles
Start with the honest limit: there is no pipefitter-only or steamfitter-only federal wage.
BLS publishes one combined occupation — 47-2152, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters, with example titles from Pipe Fitter and Steamfitter to Sprinkler Fitter and Gas Plumber — and no separate wage or outlook for pipefitters only or steamfitters only.
Any BLS pipefitter-vs-steamfitter pay comparison is impossible from federal data.
Anyone quoting separate medians for the two titles is not quoting BLS.
What BLS does publish is the combined occupation, measured by the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey for May 2025, released May 15, 2026.
The median wage was $30.67 an hour, or $63,800 a year — half earned more, half less.
The mean was $34.70 an hour, or $72,170 a year.
The occupation had 465,840 wage-and-salary jobs.
The spread is wide: the 75th percentile earned $40.92 an hour ($85,110 a year) and the 90th percentile $52.13 an hour ($108,420 a year).
BLS projects 6.8 percent employment growth from 2025 to 2035, above the 3.5 percent all-occupation average, with about 42,000 openings a year.
One signal points toward the industrial side of this page — sort of.
The combined occupation's highest-paying industries are industrial ones: electric power generation, transmission and distribution ($115,310 median), petroleum and coal products manufacturing ($106,550), and pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing ($105,800).
Both titles work those settings, and BLS does not split the workers by trade — read it as a setting effect, not a steamfitter premium.
Where the two crafts' pay genuinely differs — local union scale, per diem, benefits — the answer lives in each local's agreement, not in federal data.
Our union pipefitter and steamfitter pay guide covers that side.
For the state-by-state combined figures, see the pipefitter salary and steamfitter salary pages — both report the same combined-occupation data behind the role you search.
This page is career information, not legal or licensing advice. Licensing requirements are set by state boards and local jurisdictions and change — confirm anything you rely on with your state licensing board or local building department.