Pipefitting wins the two numbers most people check first: the federal category covering plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters carries a higher median wage than the welding category ($63,800 vs $53,750, May 2025) and faster projected growth through 2035.
Welding is the better pick when you want to weld all day.
This pipefitter vs welder comparison covers the tasks, the training, the pay detail, and doing both.
Pipefitter or welder: the short answer
Start with the numbers, properly labelled.
In BLS's OEWS May 2025 data (released May 15, 2026), the combined Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters category (SOC 47-2152) has a median wage of $30.67/hour or $63,800/year, against $25.84/hour or $53,750/year for Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers (SOC 51-4121).
The pipe-trades category is also projected to grow 6.8% from 2025 to 2035, versus 2.4% for the welding category, against a 3.5% average for all occupations.
So on the pipefitter vs welder salary question and on job growth, the pipe trades lead the federal data.
Read the categories for what they are, though: the pipe-trades SOC folds plumbers and steamfitters in with pipefitters, and BLS publishes no pipefitter-only wage, while the welding category's biggest employer group is manufacturing, not construction contractors.
The two numbers bracket the decision; they don't make it for you.
That is why the answer starts with the work.
If you want the pipe-building trade — installing and maintaining pipes that sit mostly in manufacturing, commercial, and industrial settings — pipefitting is the path, and it leaves welding open as an add-on.
If you want welding to be the job itself — work whose biggest employers are manufacturers — the welding route is the honest choice.
Our pipefitter career guide covers the trade in depth; the rest of this page puts the two side by side.
What the work is like: pipefitter vs welder tasks
BLS describes pipefitters and steamfitters as installing and maintaining pipes that may carry chemicals, acids, and gases, mostly in manufacturing, commercial, and industrial settings, with steamfitters specializing in systems for liquids or gases at high pressure.
On the employer side, most of the category works for contractors: 65% of plumber, pipefitter, and steamfitter jobs are with plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors alone, and 8% are self-employed.
Welding, as a federal category, is a different map.
The industries employing the most welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers are manufacturers: fabricated metal product manufacturing (NAICS 3323 and 3324 only) employs 70,020 and machinery manufacturing (3331, 3332, 3334, and 3339 only) 56,750, with another 25,910 in the remaining fabricated-metal industries (3321, 3322, 3325, 3326, and 3329 only).
Welding means joining metal — and the industry counts put the category's largest populations in that manufacturing work, not in construction.
By state, the pipe trades' most jobs are in California (47,660), Texas (44,090), Florida (29,260), New York (23,210), and Illinois (16,750), while the welding category's most are in Texas (52,000), followed by California (26,060), Ohio (20,330), Pennsylvania (17,850), and Florida (16,420).
The welding list adds Ohio and Pennsylvania, neither on the pipe-trades top five.
One overlap matters for this comparison: O*NET's sample of reported job titles for the combined 47-2152.00 occupation — the category behind the pipe-trades numbers on this page — includes Pipe Welder alongside Pipefitter and Plumber.
Our pipe welder guide covers that specialty.
Training: how you learn each trade
The pipe-trades route is documented in federal data: most plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters learn through a 4- or 5-year apprenticeship with typically 2,000 hours of paid on-the-job training plus technical instruction each year, in programs sponsored by unions, trade associations, and businesses.
Apprentices earn less than fully trained plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters, and their pay increases as they learn to do more.
On the union side, the United Association says its apprenticeships typically last five years, with tracks in plumbing, sprinkler fitting, pipefitting, HVACR, steamfitting, and welding, and that they are registered with the Department of Labor.
On the credential side, NCCER's pipefitting curriculum is organized in four levels, Level 1 through Level 4.
Welding-specific training is the half we can't document as well.
Our research vault verified the apprenticeship route above and the weld tracks inside it, but it does not contain verified figures for standalone welding-school programs — their lengths, costs, or outcomes — so we won't invent any.
Which weld tests matter is for your employer to name: the tests a given contractor needs you to hold are the contractor's to call — ask before you train for or pay for any test.
The two paths also meet inside the apprenticeship itself: the UA's apprenticeships — typically five years — carry welding tracks, so a fitter inside that system adds welding without leaving the route.
The specifics — which tests, and what the benchmark pipe test involves — are covered in our pipefitter-welder guide.
Which pays more: pipefitter or welder?
Here is the full May 2025 distribution, same series and same statistic on both sides: annual wage percentiles from OEWS.
| Annual wage (OEWS May 2025) | Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters (SOC 47-2152) | Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers (SOC 51-4121) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $44,150 | $39,240 |
| Median | $63,800 | $53,750 |
| 90th percentile | $108,420 | $77,530 |
The pipe-trades category is higher at all five OEWS percentiles — the table shows the 10th, Median, and 90th rows — and the gap widens near the top: $108,420 against $77,530 at the 90th.
Each geography list below is its own ranking, so read it against its own label.
The highest-paying metros for the pipe-trades category by annual median are San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA ($107,560), Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN ($103,380), Bellingham, WA ($102,750), Minneapolis-St.
Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI ($101,630), and Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA ($101,010).
For the welding category they are Lima, OH ($85,790), Urban Honolulu, HI ($81,120), Alaska's nonmetropolitan area ($81,000), Fairbanks-College, AK ($80,210), and the Balance of Nevada nonmetropolitan area ($79,810); its top-paying states are Alaska ($80,840), Hawaii ($79,000), Connecticut ($64,880), Wyoming ($63,820), and Washington ($63,020).
The highest-paying industries in each category's OEWS data come with a caveat from our own research: they are small niches, not typical jobs.
Pipe-trades workers in electric power generation, transmission, and distribution have a $115,310 median, ahead of petroleum and coal products manufacturing ($106,550) and pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing ($105,800).
Welders in scheduled air transportation have a $137,730 median, ahead of other pipeline transportation ($106,170) and performing arts companies ($104,220).
Three reading rules on all of it.
The pipe-trades column includes plumbers and steamfitters — BLS publishes no pipefitter-only wage — so treat the gap as category versus category, not as an offer you can expect by title.
The figures also exclude overtime pay, shift differentials, and nonproduction bonuses, so workers who put in overtime on either side can earn beyond these numbers.
And the annual figures assume a 2,080-hour year.
The programmatic tables are on our pipefitter salary and pipe-welder salary pages.
This is a category comparison, not a quote
Doing both: the pipefitter-to-welder bridge
The either/or framing oversells the split.
O*NET's sample of reported job titles for the combined pipe-trades occupation includes Pipe Welder alongside Pipefitter, and the United Association — which lists welders among its trades alongside pipefitters, plumbers, and steamfitters — runs welding as one of the tracks in its typically five-year apprenticeships, alongside pipefitting.
In the UA's own structure, welding is one of the tracks inside the same apprenticeship system, so fitting and welding can be learned under one roof.
The practical sequence, if you want both: enter through a pipefitting apprenticeship and add weld qualifications by passing the tests your contractor or program requires.
That fit-plus-weld combination is the role our pipefitter-welder guide details, including the weld tests behind it; our pipe welder guide covers the pipe-welding specialty on its own.
If you are choosing a first trade rather than planning the sequence, the short answer stands: the pipe-trades entry gives you the higher federal median, faster projected growth, and welding still available as an add-on — while a welding-first entry starts you on the side of the data where manufacturing is the largest employer.
Career information, not legal or financial advice. Pay figures are BLS's May 2025 estimates for broad occupational categories and change with the next release; confirm current wages, entry requirements and weld qualifications with the contractors, programs and unions hiring in your area.