Pick the trade for the work you want to do, not the pay: plumbers and electricians earn nearly identical wages in the BLS's May 2025 data — a $63,800 median against $63,190.
The real differences are structural.
Electricians are the larger trade with more openings and faster projected growth; plumbing carries the higher days-away injury rate.
This page compares pay, training, physical demands, and outlook so you can choose.
Plumber vs electrician: quick answer
On the federal numbers, plumbers and electricians are paid almost identically.
The median plumber, pipefitter, or steamfitter earned $63,800 a year in May 2025; the median electrician earned $63,190.
The means differ by a similar sliver — $72,170 against $71,490.
If you're choosing between these trades on pay alone, the data won't decide it for you.
The differences that are real, all from the same federal data:
- Size. BLS counted 757,220 electrician jobs nationally in May 2025 against 465,840 on the plumbing side — wage-and-salary workers, self-employed excluded.
- Growth. Electrician employment is projected to grow 9.2% from 2025 to 2035, against 6.8% for the plumbing bundle; the all-occupation average is 3.5%.
- Openings. About 72,700 openings a year for electricians against about 42,000 for plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters.
- Injuries. The plumbing bundle's days-away injury rate ran 144.5 per 10,000 full-time workers in 2023–2024; electricians' was 96.6.
One naming note before the details: "plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters" is a single BLS occupation (SOC 47-2152), so every plumbing figure here covers the whole pipe-trade bundle — BLS publishes no plumber-only split.
Electricians are their own occupation (SOC 47-2111).
With that framing set, the sections below walk each difference.
Pay compared
Plumbers hold a slight edge on the measures BLS publishes: the median and the mean both run ahead of the electrician line, and so do the 10th, 25th, and 75th percentiles.
At the 90th percentile the two trades are effectively tied — $108,420 for the plumbing bundle against $108,510 for electricians.
| Measure (BLS OEWS, May 2025) | Plumbers, pipefitters & steamfitters (47-2152) | Electricians (47-2111) |
|---|---|---|
| Median wage | $30.67/hr · $63,800/yr | $30.38/hr · $63,190/yr |
| Mean wage | $34.70/hr · $72,170/yr | $34.37/hr · $71,490/yr |
| 10th percentile | $21.22/hr · $44,150/yr | $20.50/hr · $42,640/yr |
| 25th percentile | $24.13/hr · $50,190/yr | $23.76/hr · $49,430/yr |
| 75th percentile | $40.92/hr · $85,110/yr | $40.36/hr · $83,940/yr |
| 90th percentile | $52.13/hr · $108,420/yr | $52.17/hr · $108,510/yr |
What the figures measure: wage-and-salary workers only, with the self-employed excluded.
The wage figures include base pay, commissions, and production bonuses, but exclude overtime, shift differentials, and non-production bonuses such as sign-on pay.
Annual figures assume 2,080 paid hours.
Treat the table as a national baseline — half earn more than the median, half less.
Location moves both lines more than the trade choice does.
Ranked by annual median wage, the top states for the plumbing bundle are District of Columbia $101,020; Illinois $99,950; Oregon $97,050; Minnesota $94,410; Alaska $93,920 — and for electricians, Oregon $101,310; Illinois $99,560; Hawaii $96,460; Washington $95,220; Alaska $89,440.
Metro medians push past $100,000 at the top of both trades — San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara leads the plumbing bundle at $107,560, Kankakee, Illinois leads electrical at $105,500.
The very top of each trade sits in small niches, not typical jobs: electric power generation pays the plumbing bundle's highest industry median at $115,310, natural gas distribution tops electricians at $131,780.
We keep the full state-by-state tables on our plumber salary pages rather than re-printing them here.
Training and licensing time
On the plumbing side, BLS says most plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters learn the trade through a 4- or 5-year apprenticeship, with about 2,000 hours of paid on-the-job training each year plus technical instruction.
The United Association — the pipe trades' union — runs the largest registered versions: its apprenticeships are registered with the Department of Labor and typically last five years, covering plumbing among its trades.
The federal floor under any registered apprenticeship is worth knowing, because it applies to both trades: an apprenticeable occupation must require at least 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning, and the Department of Labor recommends — but does not require — at least 144 hours of related classroom instruction per year.
The federal rule sets no percentage pay steps; each program's own standards do.
What the licence itself requires after that is set state by state, and often city by city — our plumber license guide walks that ladder.
On the electrical side we keep the scope honest: this site's sourced research covers HVAC and plumbing licensing, not electrical, so we won't put a year count or an hour total on the electrical path.
Electrical requirements are set by states — and in some places cities and counties — and from what we hold, we can't rank the two trades' entry time honestly.
Confirm both paths where you live before you commit.
Rules change — confirm before you enroll
Difficulty and physical demands
The cleanest measure is BLS's survey of workplace injuries, which counts cases involving days away from work per 10,000 full-time workers.
In 2023–2024 the rate for plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters was 144.5 — well above the 86.6 all-occupation rate — and their broader DART rate (days away, restricted duty, or job transfer) was 211.7.
Electricians' days-away rate was 96.6, lower than plumbing's and lower than HVACR mechanics' 214.5.
What sits behind the plumbing number?
BLS lists the trade's common injuries as cuts from sharp tools, burns from hot pipes and soldering equipment, and falls from ladders.
O*NET's survey — which measures how often workers encounter conditions, not how often they're hurt — found 21% of plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters working in cramped spaces or awkward positions every day and 43% at least weekly; 25% are exposed to high places every day.
Our sourced data doesn't include the equivalent O*NET condition breakdown for electricians, so this section compares the trades on the BLS injury rates alone — and those put plumbing's measured injury burden higher.
That doesn't make electrical work safe; it makes the comparison one-sided in what we can source.
Job outlook
Both trades are projected to grow faster than the 3.5% all-occupation average through 2035, but not at the same pace.
BLS's Employment Projections (2025–35, released August 27, 2026) put the plumbing bundle at 6.8% growth — 510.6k jobs rising to 545.2k, self-employed workers included — with about 42,000 openings a year on average.
Electricians are projected at 9.2% — 821.0k rising to 896.9k — with about 72,700 openings a year.
The openings gap partly reflects size — electricians are the larger occupation, so more jobs turn over in absolute terms.
Where the jobs sit, the two trades overlap heavily.
In May 2025 wage-and-salary counts, the plumbing bundle held 465,840 jobs against 757,220 for electricians.
Most plumbing jobs: California 47,660; Texas 44,090; Florida 29,260; New York 23,210; Illinois 16,750.
Most electrical jobs: Texas 76,770; California 73,310; Florida 49,700; New York 40,130; Ohio 28,950.
The same metros anchor both — New York-Newark-Jersey City tops both lists, with 21,040 plumbing-side jobs and 36,550 electrical ones.
They even share an anchor industry: building equipment contractors employ 340,140 of the plumbing-bundle jobs and 560,290 of the electrical ones.
The plumbing side's next distinct employer is utility system construction, at 14,960.
Which fits which personality
No federal survey scores temperament, so the honest framing starts from the sourced differences above.
Lean plumbing if the work itself pulls you — water supply, drainage, the systems inside occupied homes and buildings — knowing its survey profile includes daily cramped-space work and a higher measured injury rate.
Lean electrical if you want the larger occupation, the bigger pool of annual openings, and a somewhat lower measured injury rate — knowing the pay difference is close to nil.
One measured demographic note: women were 3.1% of employed plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters in 2025 and 3.5% of electricians, per the CPS.
On that measure the trades look alike, and both skew heavily male.
If you're still deciding on plumbing, our guide to is plumbing a good career walks the full evaluation, and the plumber career guide covers the role from apprentice to master.
Weighing a third trade?
Our HVAC vs plumbing comparison lines up the third mechanical trade, and the HVAC technician career guide is the place to go deeper on it.
And if plumbing wins: browse open plumber jobs to see what employers near you are hiring for.
This page compares careers using federal statistics; it is career information, not legal or licensing advice. Confirm licensing and apprenticeship requirements with your state licensing board — or the city or county where licensing is local — before you make decisions based on them.