Place and finish the concrete everything else is built on. Paid from your first day, no tuition.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$57,020
First year helper
$39,190
Union journeyman or foreman
$85,480
The national median is $57,020 a year and the bottom tenth start near $39,190. The survey counts Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers together. Union crews on highway and commercial work sit at the top of that band, and small residential driveway outfits sit at the bottom.
$18 to $23 an hour
Helper or first year apprentice, rising on a set schedule
Registered apprenticeships pay a percentage of the journeyman rate that climbs every six months or every year until you reach full scale. Non-union crews often start lower and raise you when they feel like it.
$85,480 and up
Top tenth: union journeymen, foremen, finishers who own the outfit
Public road and bridge jobs paid with federal money carry a prevailing wage, which is a legally required hourly rate for the area. Those jobs pay far more than private residential work for the same skill.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a registered apprenticeship, where there is no tuition and you are paid to learn, so you buy boots, gloves, knee pads and hand tools and nothing else. The high end adds an optional community college concrete course at $500 to $2,500 in state, a fuller tool kit, and a safety training card at $60 to $180 if your employer does not cover it. There is no reason to pay a private school thousands to teach you concrete: if you are quoted that, look for a contractor or a union hall that will pay you instead.
There is no reason to pay for a private school here. If a program charges thousands to teach you concrete, look for a contractor or a union hall that will pay you instead.
Union pension and health plan
Cement masons organized with the Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association get a pension and full family health coverage through the local.
No student debt
You earn from the first week and finish an apprenticeship with money, not loans.
Overtime
Concrete does not wait. Pours run early, late and on Saturdays, usually at time and a half.
Prevailing wage jobs
Public work sets a minimum hourly rate and benefit contribution by law.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Two ways in: get hired by a contractor, or get into a registered apprenticeship.
High school diploma or the GED (General Educational Development) test
Grade 12
Most apprenticeships require one. Straight hire by a small contractor often does not.
Get on a crew as a helper
Right away
Moving hose, setting forms, pulling screed, cleaning tools. Nobody lets you finish a slab in week one.
Register an apprenticeship
2 to 4 years
Roughly 2 to 4 years combining paid work with classroom hours, run by a union local or a contractor association through the federal apprenticeship system.
Learn to finish, not just to place
2 to 5 years in
Timing the set, bull floating, edging, troweling and knowing when to walk away is what separates a laborer from a finisher.
Journeyman, then foreman
5 years and up
Running your own crew, reading the plans, calling the pour and owning the result.
Math
Yards of concrete, slope, area and how much you need before the truck arrives.
Shop or construction class
Form work is carpentry, and you will build plenty of it.
Physical education
The work is bending, kneeling and lifting all day long.
Spanish
It is the working language on a large share of concrete crews.
No state licenses concrete finishers as individuals. The contractor who employs you usually needs a state contractor license, and on public work everyone on site needs safety training. What does exist is voluntary certification: the ACI (American Concrete Institute) runs more than 30 certification programs across the concrete industry, including flatwork finishing and field testing, and some large commercial jobs write those certificates into the contract. They are not required to get hired, but they are cheap proof that you know what you are doing.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Flatwork finisher certification
The ACI (American Concrete Institute) credential that some commercial contracts require on the crew.
Decorative and polished concrete
Stamping, staining and grinding. Higher margin work for homeowners and retail spaces.
Concrete field testing technician
Slump, air content and cylinder tests. A separate certified role that pays and is easier on the body.
Safety training card
A 10 or 30 hour construction safety course from OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration). Required on many sites.
Commercial driver's license
Lets you move the trucks and equipment too, and makes you harder to lay off in a slow month.
A driver's license and your own transport
Sites change every few weeks and start before the buses run.
Early rising
Pours start at dawn to beat the heat, especially in summer.
Knee care from day one
Good pads and the habit of using them decide how long your career is.
Photos of finished work
Small contractors hire on what your slabs look like, not on paperwork.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
You are on site before sunrise because concrete sets on its own schedule. Set and check the forms, place reinforcing steel, then the trucks arrive and the pour begins, which is the loud, fast, no-stopping part. Once it is placed and screeded flat you wait, watching the surface, because everything after this is about timing. Float it too early and you trap water, too late and it is concrete. Then edging, jointing, troweling, sometimes by machine, sometimes on your knees. Clean every tool before it hardens, or they are gone.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Cement and water go through a chemical reaction called hydration and keep gaining strength for years. That is why a slab can be poured underwater and why finishers are watching a clock they cannot stop.
Fresh concrete is strongly alkaline and will cause chemical burns through wet clothing without you feeling it at the time. Knee pads, gloves and rubber boots are the reason experienced finishers still have skin on their shins.
More concrete is placed each year than any other manufactured material. Every road, bridge, sidewalk and foundation in the country starts with somebody finishing a surface by hand.
The federal career profile puts this occupation below average for growth, with employment rising slower than average and few large openings. Demand is steadiest where highways and public projects are funded, which makes prevailing wage work worth chasing.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.