Construction is booming despite the recent slump during the pandemic, which has facilitated more demand for construction workers. Not only is there a big demand for them, but the average wage of construction workers has also increased.

According to the recent data report by the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States spent $917.4 billion overall on construction during the first half of 2023. Although this amount only represents a 2.5% inflation-adjusted increase from last year.

Researchers at Construction Coverage examined the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the U.S. Census Bureau to identify the states with the highest wages for construction workers. 

Residential housing has emerged as the front runner, with new housing starts seeing rapid development in the current market. This is a positive change from the slump that was seen in the last decade due to subprime mortgage and housing market slump.

New housing building has shown signals of growth despite the fact that higher interest rates negatively impact the economy nationwide. 

This has spurred the demand for a new construction workforce, which had been worst impacted during the pandemic and had reached an abysmally low level of 6.5 million people. As of July 2023, it reached a record high of over 7.9 million workers.

The construction industry is one of the most well-paying sectors, even though a majority of the employees lack any higher education or even college degrees.

The median annual wage of full and part-time wage and salary construction workers in the United States is $50,570, which is 9% greater than the national average wages of $46,310 for all other nationwide occupations.

When the cost of living is considered, the Midwest has some of the highest construction workers' salaries at the state level. Illinois is said to be the best-paying state for U.S. construction workers after considering its cost of living. 

The average median annual wage of Illinois is $73,630, which is higher than any other state, followed by Minnesota offering $63,330, North Dakota at $62,336, Wisconsin at $61,877, and Ohio at $61,141, all ranking among the top 10 high-paying U.S. states. 

On the other hand, the southern states pay the least for construction employees in terms of cost-adjusted wages. The bottom 10 states in this ranking are all in the South, including Arkansas ($44,217), Florida ($44,602), and Alabama ($45,961), all being the lowest adjusted wages for construction workers in the nation. 

According to the cost of living adjusted median annual wage for construction employees, the researchers ranked the states as per their wage payscale. For analysis, the researchers considered construction workers who were wage and salary workers employed by nonfarm establishments within the major occupational group of Construction and Extraction Occupations. 

If you are a construction worker in the Midwest, you would be doing much better than your peers in other parts of the country. A well-paid employee serves the project much better, reducing the chance of ill will.