Roofer Salary: BLS Median Pay by State
Half of roofers earned more than $55,440 a year and half earned less, according to the May 2025 BLS OEWS release. State medians in this guide run from $44,940 to $77,900.
$55,440
Median annual wage
Roofers, May 2025 OEWS
$26.65
Median hourly wage
Official OEWS hourly median
5.9%
Projected growth, 2024–2034
all occupations: 3.1%
135,490
OEWS employment, May 2025
wage and salary workers
Wage figures are medians for Roofers (SOC 47-2181). May 2025 OEWS estimates, released May 15, 2026; reviewed July 2026. The OEWS mean is $58,140 per year ($27.95 per hour), which is a different statistic from the median.
Roofers cover, repair, and replace roofs using shingles, membranes, metal panels, tile, and related materials. The May 2025 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release put the median annual wage for roofers at $55,440, or $26.65 an hour, across 135,490 wage and salary workers. The median is the midpoint of the wage distribution, so half of that group earned more and half earned less; the arithmetic mean was $58,140 a year, a separate statistic. State medians vary substantially, from $44,940 in Mississippi to $77,900 in Illinois among the states listed here. It is worth noting that OEWS covers wage and salary workers only, and roofing has a meaningful share of self-employed workers whose earnings are outside the survey. BLS projects the occupation to grow from 166,700 in 2024 to 176,500 in 2034, a net increase of 9,800 positions, with an average of 12,700 openings a year once retirements and moves to other occupations are counted. This guide reports those published figures and marks clearly where nothing is published.
Roofer wage benchmark lookup
Look up the official BLS median wage for Roofers nationally or in a listed state. This is a published benchmark, not a personalized salary estimate, and it applies no adjustment for experience, employer, or credentials.
Only states with a published OEWS median for this occupation are listed.
Median annual wage, United States (national)
$55,440/year
Median hourly wage: $26.65/hr
Source: May 2025 OEWS estimates, released May 15, 2026; reviewed July 2026. Half of roofers in this area earned more than this amount and half earned less. OEWS covers wage and salary workers. It excludes self-employed people and owners or partners of unincorporated firms, so it does not measure owner earnings, draws, or business profit.
Roofer median wages by state
Across the 21 states listed here, the May 2025 OEWS median for Roofers runs from $44,940 in Mississippi to $77,900 in Illinois. Both the annual and hourly columns are published medians; neither is derived from the other.
States with the highest median pay
| State | Median annual | Median hourly |
|---|---|---|
| Illinois | $77,900 | $37.45/hr |
| New Jersey | $76,600 | $36.83/hr |
| Minnesota | $74,490 | $35.81/hr |
| Massachusetts | $72,750 | $34.98/hr |
| New York | $66,020 | $31.74/hr |
| California | $63,600 | $30.58/hr |
| Connecticut | $62,070 | $29.84/hr |
States with the lowest median pay
| State | Median annual | Median hourly |
|---|---|---|
| Virginia | $48,420 | $23.28/hr |
| Florida | $47,590 | $22.88/hr |
| Georgia | $46,940 | $22.57/hr |
| Texas | $46,030 | $22.13/hr |
| Tennessee | $45,690 | $21.97/hr |
| Alabama | $45,670 | $21.96/hr |
| Mississippi | $44,940 | $21.61/hr |
Career path and progression
What the work involves at each stage. BLS publishes wages for the occupation as a whole, not by years of experience or license tier, so no pay figures are shown here.
Helper
Handles tear-offs, loading, cleanup, and material staging while learning fall protection, ladder and hoist safety, and basic installation sequence.
Installer
Completes shingle, membrane, or panel installations and handles flashing, penetrations, and repair work with limited supervision.
Crew lead
Runs a crew through a full job, checks details and flashings, manages material quantities and deliveries, and enforces fall protection on site.
Foreman, estimator, or contractor
Estimates and sequences work across multiple crews, handles inspections and warranty documentation, and where a jurisdiction requires a contractor license for roofing, holds it.
Specialties and work settings
Roofers is a single BLS occupation, so the published wage data does not break out these specialties. They are described here for career planning only.
Steep-slope residential
Asphalt shingle, tile, and slate roofing on housing, including tear-offs, decking repairs, ventilation, and flashing details.
Low-slope and commercial
Single-ply membranes such as TPO and EPDM, modified bitumen, and built-up systems on warehouses, retail, and institutional buildings.
Metal roofing
Standing seam and exposed-fastener panel systems, which require precise layout, panel forming, and flashing work.
Storm and insurance restoration
Replacement work after hail and wind events, involving damage documentation, adjuster coordination, and concentrated seasonal volume.
Roof-mounted solar
Racking, mounts, and flashing for photovoltaic arrays. BLS reports Solar Photovoltaic Installers separately under SOC 47-2231.
Reflective and vegetative systems
Cool roof coatings, reflective membranes, and vegetative assemblies used to meet energy and stormwater requirements on commercial and municipal buildings.
Licenses and credentials in this trade
Roofing is regulated mainly at the contractor level, and whether a license is required at all depends on the state and often the city or county. The manufacturer and industry programs below are voluntary. BLS does not publish a wage premium for any of them.
| Credential | Full name | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor license | State or local roofing contractor license | Where required, it applies to the business rather than to individual crew members, and the bonding, insurance, and exam requirements are set by the jurisdiction. |
| Fall protection training | Fall protection competent person training | Training that supports the fall protection duties OSHA places on employers for work at height. Content and providers vary; roofing employers commonly require it before roof access. |
| OSHA 30 | OSHA 30-Hour Construction Outreach Training | Voluntary safety outreach training on construction hazards. It is a training course rather than a credential OSHA issues, and general contractors often ask for it before site access. |
| Manufacturer programs | Manufacturer installer programs, for example GAF Master Elite or CertainTeed ShingleMaster | Voluntary programs run by material manufacturers. They govern eligibility to offer specific extended system warranties and are administered by the manufacturer, not by any public body. |
| Haag inspector | Haag Certified Inspector | A private training credential for assessing storm damage to roofing assemblies, often referenced in insurance restoration work. |
Roofer pay compared with related occupations
Every row is a single BLS detailed occupation with its own SOC code, May 2025 OEWS medians, and 2024–2034 projected growth. Rows are not adjusted for hours, region, or self-employment.
| Occupation | Median annual | Median hourly | Growth 2024–2034 |
|---|---|---|---|
| RooferThis guideRoofers | $55,440 | $26.65 | 5.9% |
| CarpenterCarpenters | $60,580 | $29.12 | 4.5% |
| PainterPainters, Construction and Maintenance | $49,400 | $23.75 | 3.8% |
| Sheet metal workerSheet Metal Workers | $61,800 | $29.71 | 2.4% |
| Construction laborerConstruction Laborers | $47,120 | $22.66 | 7.3% |
| ElectricianElectricians | $63,190 | $30.38 | 9.5% |
| Solar PV installerSolar Photovoltaic Installers | $53,140 | $25.55 | 42.1% |
Employment projections, 2024–2034
Projection figures come from the BLS National Employment Matrix for Roofers. They use a broader employment concept than the OEWS wage-and-salary count above, so the two employment figures are not interchangeable.
166,700
Employment, 2024
National Employment Matrix base year
176,500
Projected employment, 2034
National Employment Matrix projection
+9,800
Net employment change, 2024–2034
BLS published net change
5.9%
Projected growth, 2024–2034
percent change in employment
12,700
Average annual openings, 2024–2034
includes growth plus separations
3.1%
All occupations, 2024–2034
benchmark growth rate
BLS projects 5.9% employment growth for this occupation from 2024 to 2034, above the 3.1% BLS projects for all occupations.
BLS projects employment of roofers to rise from 166,700 in 2024 to 176,500 in 2034, a net increase of 9,800 positions, with an average of 12,700 openings a year across the decade. Openings run well above net new positions because the projection also counts workers who leave the labor force or transfer to other occupations, and roofing has a comparatively high separation rate. BLS attributes demand in the occupation to new construction and to the repair and replacement of existing roofs. It does not publish a breakdown of the projection by weather event, insurance activity, or material type, so none is asserted here.
Methodology and sources
- Occupation:
- Roofers (SOC 47-2181)
- Wage source:
- May 2025 OEWS estimates, released May 15, 2026; reviewed July 2026.
- Projection source:
- BLS Employment Projections and National Employment Matrix, 2024–2034, released August 28, 2025.
- Median vs mean:
- The median is the midpoint of the wage distribution. The mean is the arithmetic average and is usually higher. Headline figures on this page are medians.
- Scope:
- OEWS covers wage and salary workers. It excludes self-employed people and owners or partners of unincorporated firms, so it does not measure owner earnings, draws, or business profit.
- Occupation scope:
- Roofing has a relatively high share of self-employed workers. OEWS covers wage and salary workers only, so those earnings are not represented in the wage figures on this page.
- Note:
- All wage figures are the 47-2181 rows of the May 2025 OEWS national and state cross-industry files. All projection figures are the 47-2181 row of the BLS 2024-2034 occupational projections table.
- Note:
- Roof-mounted solar work is often reported under Solar Photovoltaic Installers (47-2231), a separate occupation, so it is not reflected in the roofing wages above.
- Coverage caveat:
- State tables list only the states with a published OEWS median for this occupation. BLS suppresses estimates that do not meet its disclosure or reliability standards, and published employment levels are rounded, so a published net change can differ slightly from the difference between the rounded 2024 and 2034 levels.
- Last reviewed:
- July 2026
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about roofers pay, answered from the published data.
The May 2025 BLS OEWS median annual wage for roofers was $55,440, or $26.65 an hour. Half of roofers covered by the survey earned more and half earned less. The separate arithmetic mean was $58,140 a year.
The published median hourly wage was $26.65 and the mean hourly wage was $27.95. The median is the better answer to what a typical roofer earns, since the mean is pulled up by the top of the distribution.
Among the states in this guide, the highest May 2025 OEWS annual medians were Illinois at $77,900, New Jersey at $76,600, Minnesota at $74,490, Massachusetts at $72,750, and New York at $66,020. These are occupation-wide state medians rather than pay for a specific role.
BLS projects 5.9% growth between 2024 and 2034, from 166,700 to 176,500 positions. That is above the 3.1% projected for all occupations. The projection also implies an average of 12,700 openings a year, which is high relative to the net increase because many roofers leave the occupation each year.
Roofing is generally regulated at the contractor level, and whether a license is required depends on the state and often on the city or county. Individual crew members frequently work under a licensed contractor. Check the authority for the specific jurisdiction.
Work volume shifts with the weather in colder climates and tends to concentrate in the warmer months, while southern markets and storm restoration work can run closer to year-round. BLS wage data is annualized and does not separate seasonal from year-round employment.
No. OEWS publishes wage percentiles for the occupation as a whole. It does not break wages out by steep-slope versus commercial work, by manufacturer program, or by years of experience, so no dollar figure is attached to those here.
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