Plumbing leads the two numbers this comparison starts with — pay and projected growth.
The federal category covering plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters pays a median of $63,800 a year against $53,750 for the welding category (May 2025), and it is projected to grow faster through 2035.
Asked as plumber vs welder or welder vs plumber salary, the numbers give the same answer.
Which trade is easier to enter comes down to training — and to what our research could not verify.
Plumber 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) pays a median 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 also holds more jobs — 465,840 against 416,210 wage-and-salary jobs — and is projected to grow 6.8% from 2025 to 2035, versus 2.4% for the welding category, against a 3.5% average for all occupations.
Read the labels for what they are.
The pipe-trades category folds plumbers and steamfitters in with pipefitters — its example titles run from Plumber and Master Plumber to Pipe Fitter, Steamfitter, Sprinkler Fitter, and Gas Plumber — and BLS publishes no plumber-only wage.
The industries employing the most workers in the welding category are all manufacturers, led by fabricated metal product manufacturing at 70,020 jobs.
So this is a category-versus-category comparison, and the work itself decides it.
On the work: plumbers install and repair water, gas, and other piping systems in homes, businesses, and factories, including fixtures such as bathtubs and toilets and appliances such as dishwashers and water heaters.
Choose plumbing if you want that varied installation-and-repair work; choose welding if you want welding itself to be the job.
Our plumber career guide covers the trade in depth, and if the comparison you are running is against another trade entirely, we also break down plumber vs electrician.
The rest of this page puts plumbers and welders side by side.
Plumber vs welder pay: which pays more?
Same series and same statistic on both sides: annual wages from BLS's OEWS May 2025, with the median marked.
We use medians throughout this comparison and do not mix in the mean (average) figures.
| 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 |
| 25th percentile | $50,190 | $46,790 |
| Median | $63,800 | $53,750 |
| 75th percentile | $85,110 | $63,010 |
| 90th percentile | $108,420 | $77,530 |
The pipe-trades category is higher at all five percentiles shown, and the gap is widest at the top: $108,420 against $77,530 at the 90th.
In hourly terms, the medians are $30.67 and $25.84.
On geography, read each list 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), the Alaska nonmetropolitan area ($81,000), Fairbanks-College, AK ($80,210), and the Balance of Nevada nonmetropolitan area ($79,810); its top-paying states by annual median 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.
These are category estimates, not offers — BLS publishes no plumber-only wage, so treat the gap as category versus category, not as a quote you can expect by title.
The figures also exclude overtime pay, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, and benefits, so workers who put in overtime on either side can earn beyond these numbers.
And the annual figures assume a 2,080-hour year.
Our programmatic tables are on the plumber salary and pipe welder salary pages.
Category medians, not offers
Training: how you enter each trade
The plumbing-side route is documented in federal data: most plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters learn the trade 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.
The United Association says its apprenticeships are registered with the Department of Labor and typically last five years.
The welding half of this question is the half we can document less.
Welding sits inside the apprenticeship route as well: the United Association's typically five-year apprenticeships include welding as one of their tracks, alongside plumbing, pipefitting, HVACR, and steamfitting.
But our research vault holds no verified figures for standalone welding-school programs — their lengths, costs, or outcomes — so we won't invent any, and which weld tests matter is something to confirm with the employers and programs you actually want to work for.
So which trade is easier to enter?
On the documented routes: the plumbing side runs through a 4- or 5-year apprenticeship with typically 2,000 paid on-the-job hours a year, and on the welding side, the route our research documents is welding as a track inside apprenticeships like the UA's five-year programs.
Pay near the low end of the distribution differs too: the 10th-percentile wage is $44,150 in the pipe-trades category against $39,240 in the welding category — the same series, measured the same way.
Beyond that, we can't rank 'easier' — the unverified welding-school half stops us — so weigh the day-to-day work, not just the route in.
Working conditions: where each trade works
Plumbing work, as BLS describes it, means installing and repairing water, gas, and other piping systems in homes, businesses, and factories — fixtures such as bathtubs and toilets, appliances such as dishwashers and water heaters.
Most of the combined category works for contractors: BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook puts 65% of plumber, pipefitter, and steamfitter jobs with plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors in 2025, and another 8% self-employed, while BLS's OEWS industry counts for May 2025 put 340,140 jobs with building equipment contractors — the NAICS group that also contains electrical contractors — 14,960 with utility system construction, and 11,480 with local government excluding schools and hospitals.
The welding category works 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, machinery manufacturing (3331, 3332, 3334, and 3339 only) 56,750, and the remaining fabricated-metal industries (3321, 3322, 3325, 3326, and 3329 only) another 25,910 — three manufacturing groups top the list.
Geography differs too.
The pipe-trades category's 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 are in Texas (52,000), California (26,060), Ohio (20,330), Pennsylvania (17,850), and Florida (16,420) — Ohio and Pennsylvania join that list, and Texas leads it.
By metro area, New York-Newark-Jersey City tops the pipe-trades list at 21,040 jobs, while Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands tops the welding list at 15,850.
Where the two overlap: pipe welding
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 Plumber — welding on pipe systems sits inside the same federal category as plumbing.
The United Association lists welders among its trades alongside plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters, and welding is one of the tracks in its typically five-year, DOL-registered apprenticeships.
Practically, the overlap means welding can be part of the pipe-trades route itself — it is one of the UA's apprenticeship tracks — so entering the pipe trades doesn't close welding off.
Whether prior welding experience shortens the plumbing-side apprenticeship is something our research doesn't establish; ask the programs.
Our pipe welder guide covers the pipe-welding specialty on its own, and if the pair you are weighing is the pipefitter side against welding, our pipefitter vs welder comparison takes that head-on.
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.