Welder Pay Index.
What U.S. welders actually earn, broken out by certification and industry. Built from active WeldRunners job posts (computed live) plus 2025–2026 industry baselines where data is still thin.
Current edition: 0 segments from 0 active job posts; the rest sourced from BLS OEWS + AWS workforce data + contractor pay scales. Published under CC-BY 4.0 — please cite WeldRunners if you reuse.
| Industry | Cert | 25th | Median | 75th | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pipeline | 6G | $55/hr | $65/hr | $80/hr | Baseline |
| pipeline | API-1104 | $52/hr | $62/hr | $78/hr | Baseline |
| refinery | ASME-IX | $42/hr | $50/hr | $58/hr | Baseline |
| aerospace | AWS-D17-1 | $38/hr | $48/hr | $65/hr | Baseline |
| structural | AWS-D1-6 | $35/hr | $42/hr | $50/hr | Baseline |
| structural | AWS-D1-1 | $28/hr | $35/hr | $45/hr | Baseline |
| shipyard | 4G | $25/hr | $32/hr | $42/hr | Baseline |
| fabrication | AWS-D1-1 | $22/hr | $26/hr | $34/hr | Baseline |
| manufacturing | AWS-D1-1 | $20/hr | $24/hr | $30/hr | Baseline |
Each row is a slice of the U.S. welder labor market. 25th percentile = what the bottom 25% of welders in that bucket earn; 75th = top 25%. Median = the middle. Pay is base hourly, NOT including per-diem (which can add $700–$1,200/wk on top for pipeline/refinery work).
Most welder salary data online is generic Indeed / ZipRecruiter scrapes that miss cert specifics. The Pay Index splits by cert because cert is what actually drives pay. A welder with AWS D1.1 + 6G earns 50–80% more than the "average welder" stat suggests.
We bucket each active WeldRunners job by (industry, cert). Once a bucket has 5+ posts, we use real percentiles. Below 5, we use industry baselines derived from BLS OEWS 2024, AWS Welding Workforce 2025 report, and published union scales. Refreshed hourly.
Reporters: free to cite, please link weldrunners.com/career/salary. Welders: use this to negotiate. Employers: see where your offer sits relative to the market. Data nerds: dataset.json endpoint shipping soon.
Every job posted on WeldRunners makes the next edition of the Pay Index sharper. Post a job — it's free during beta — and we'll roll the rate into the next refresh.