Plumber
Also known as: Pipefitter, Steamfitter, Plumbing Installer, Service Plumber
Install and repair water, gas, and drainage systems in homes, businesses, and industrial facilities.
Salary Range
The highest-paid specialization or seniority level for plumbers.
About 1 in 33 reaches this level
About 511K plumbers (BLS Employment Projections, SOC 47-2152, 2025); many go into business but only ~3% (~15,100) clear $250K+ net profit, which requires multiple crews and strong pricing discipline.
Salary data based on 2025 BLS, Glassdoor, and industry reports. Actual compensation varies by location, experience, and employer.
How to Become One
Complete a 4–5 year plumbing apprenticeship, then pass your state’s journeyman plumber licensing exam.
For more information: United Association of Plumbers & Pipefitters ↗
Cost to Qualify
You are paid from the first day and finish without student debt. First-year pay starts around $28,400 and steps up to roughly $46,000, reaching full journeyman scale by the end. Most programmes include classroom instruction; the Department of Labor says most let you avoid student debt, though it does not spell out who covers the tuition.
Sticker price, not what most people pay — scholarships, aid and in-state status all move it. Room and board is shown separately on each college's page.
AI Risk Assessment
Plumbing is hands-on work in cramped, unpredictable spaces: every old house, leak and blocked line is a little different. The rubric's main question is how much of the daily work AI can do, and for this job the answer is very little. AI can help with quotes, scheduling and finding a fault faster, but someone still has to open the wall and fix the pipe.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters to grow 7% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average, with about 42,000 openings a year on a base of 510,600 jobs. BLS says the demand comes from new construction and from repairing the plumbing in buildings that already exist, which never goes away. A September 2025 study by CSIS, a Washington think tank, adds that AI data centers "will not be wired, cooled, or commissioned without electricians, pipefitters, HVAC technicians," because the liquid cooling these buildings need "blur[s] the boundaries between plumbing, electrical, and mechanical engineering." CSIS also notes that a quarter of construction workers are over 55 and that apprenticeships take four to five years, so retirements are likely to outpace new workers for a while.
The path in is an apprenticeship of four to five years. What would change the score: robots that can do repair work inside occupied homes at a price people will pay, or BLS projections turning flat.
Sources
Ratings reflect a 10-year outlook based on 2025-2026 research, weighted toward entry-level impact. Individual outcomes will vary.
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