Build the high pressure pipe systems inside power plants, refineries and hospitals. Paid from your first day of training.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $63,800 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $44,150 at the lower end to about $108,420 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
4 to 5 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$500 to $7,200 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a license, certificate or registration in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Rhode Island. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Very high demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median for the group
$63,800
Bottom tenth
$44,150
Top tenth
$108,420
The federal survey counts plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters as one group, where the national median is $63,800 a year. The bottom tenth earn $44,150 or less and the top tenth $108,420 or more (2025 federal wage survey).
A share of the journeyman rate
First-year apprentice, rising on a set schedule
Apprentice pay is set as a written percentage of the fully qualified rate and climbs on a schedule until you finish. The classroom part of a registered apprenticeship costs you nothing.
$101,020 a year
The median for the plumber and pipefitter group in the District of Columbia, the highest anywhere
Illinois is close behind at $99,950 and Oregon at $97,050. The lowest is Arkansas, at $48,660. State medians from the 2025 federal wage survey, before overtime from plant shutdowns and outages.
Roughly, all in
$500 to $7,200
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
A registered apprenticeship pays wages and benefits from the first day and the classroom training is covered by the program, so the low end is just hand tools: boots, levels, wrenches and a bag. The high end is someone who pays for an optional pre apprenticeship welding certificate at a community college, commonly $2,000 to $5,000 in-state, builds a fuller tool kit, pays for their own welding tests at a few hundred dollars each, and sits a state journeyman license exam at $50 to $200 where one is required. Employers usually pay for the welding tests. This is one of the few paths that ends with savings rather than student loans.
This is one of the few paths where you finish training with savings rather than student loans. The United Association says its apprentices earn wages and benefits from day one with no student debt.
Defined benefit pension
Union pipefitters build a pension from their first hour worked.
Health and dental for the family
Funded by the hours you bank, which is why steady work matters so much.
Annuity on top of the pension
Many local agreements add an hourly amount into a separate retirement account.
Travel and subsistence pay
Paid when a job sends you outside your home area.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A paid apprenticeship. Four to five years, and roughly four days on the job for every day in class.
High school diploma or an equivalency certificate
Grade 12
Math through algebra and geometry, plus shop or welding if offered. You need to be 18, pass a drug test and be physically able to do the work.
Apply to an apprenticeship
Weeks to a year of waiting
Local unions of the United Association run the biggest programs, and there are open shop and contractor association programs too. Applications open in windows, not all year.
Start work as an indentured apprentice
Immediately
You are a paid employee from the first day, working beside qualified fitters.
Work plus classroom training
4 to 5 years
Paid on-the-job training through the year plus technical instruction covering safety, codes, blueprint reading, math, physics and chemistry.
Journeyman pipefitter
After the hours
Finish your hours, pass your welding tests, and sit your state or local exam if one is required.
Math
Pipe offsets are trigonometry done with a tape measure and a chart.
Welding or metal shop
The fastest way to make an application stand out.
Physics
Pressure, heat and expansion decide how a pipe system is built.
Drafting or blueprint reading
Every job starts from an isometric drawing.
Seven states license pipefitters themselves: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Rhode Island. Elsewhere only the mechanical contractor is licensed, if anyone, though some big cities such as New York and Chicago have their own cards. Where a license exists it usually takes 2 to 5 years of documented experience plus a written exam.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Extra welding qualifications
Stainless, chrome alloy and pipe welding in the hard positions. Each one opens jobs others cannot take.
Medical gas certification
Required to install oxygen and other gas lines in hospitals, and a separate credential from your license.
HVACR (heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration) service
Year round work when construction slows down.
Rigging and foreman training
Running a crew during an outage is the step up from working on the tools.
A welding certificate before you apply
One or two semesters at a community college makes you an obvious pick.
Driver's license and a reliable vehicle
Industrial sites are rarely near transit and shifts start early.
Confined space and fall protection training
Short courses that every site requires anyway.
Willingness to travel
Fitters who chase outages across state lines earn far more than those who stay home.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Report at 6 or 7am for a safety briefing and the day's drawings. Measure, cut and thread or bevel pipe, hang supports, fit spools into place and weld them. A lot of the day is spent working out how a run of pipe gets from here to there past everything already in the way. Near the end of a job you help pressure test the system, and nobody goes home until it holds.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Pipefitters build the pipe systems that carry liquids and gases through industry. Steamfitters are pipefitters who work on systems under high pressure and heat, like steam lines in a power plant. In most union locals they are trained together and the titles are used interchangeably.
The United Association says it represents approximately 412,000 plumbers, pipefitters, sprinkler fitters, HVACR (heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration) service technicians, welders and related trades across North America (2026).
About 510,600 people work as plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters (2025). The federal projection has the group growing 7% or more to 2035, with about 42,000 openings a year.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Plumbing, pipes and HVAC first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
Last checked October 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. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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