Plumber Salary in California 2026,
$72,830 Median | BLS Data by City

California plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters earn a median $72,830 a year, $35.01 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $58,980 and $100,200 and a full range of $47,350 to $131,100. That is 14.2% above the $63,800 national median, across about 47,660 workers.

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara at $107,560, by a very wide margin over San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont at $77,880, San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad at $72,510, Vallejo at $71,560 and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim at $71,110. A thirty-thousand-dollar gap between two adjacent Bay Area metros tells you the San Jose row is industrial pipefitting, not residential plumbing.

Not as individuals. The California Contractors State License Board licenses businesses and their qualifying individuals under the C-36 plumbing classification, so a plumber working for a licensed contractor needs no personal state licence. Certain specialised work — medical gas piping, for example — carries its own certification requirements through industry bodies rather than the state.

Because the work there is process piping for semiconductor fabrication, biotechnology and data centre facilities, not household drainage. That work demands stainless and high-purity piping skills, orbital welding, cleanroom protocols and inspection documentation, and it is priced accordingly. It is also predominantly union work on large projects with structured wage scales, which is why the metro median of $107,560 sits above the state 75th percentile.

It is the route past the employed ceiling. The state 90th percentile of $131,100 is roughly where a foreman, service manager or owner-operator sits, and beyond that income becomes business income. The CSLB requires documented journey-level experience plus trade and law examinations and a bond, so it is a substantial step rather than a formality — but in a state with California's construction volume it is the main way plumbers build real wealth.

Two trades. Residential and light commercial service plumbing — drainage, supply, fixtures, water heaters — sits around the $58,980 twenty-fifth percentile to the median. Industrial and commercial pipefitting and steamfitting — process piping, medical gas, high-purity systems, mechanical plant — sits from the $100,200 seventy-fifth percentile upward. They require different skills, work on different projects and are compensated on different scales, and BLS reports them together.

The San Jose row distorts any statewide reading. At $107,560 it is nearly fifty per cent above the state median and unrepresentative of plumbing anywhere else in California, including the rest of the Bay Area. Someone considering the trade in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim should anchor on $71,110, and someone considering industrial pipefitting should anchor on the upper quartile — the state median describes neither.

They generate steady, code-driven work. California's water efficiency standards, recycled water and greywater requirements, and the plumbing scope of the state's housing production legislation all create retrofit and new-build work that is mandated rather than discretionary. That gives California plumbing a demand floor that does not depend on the commercial construction cycle — and it is why the trade's employment has held up despite a location quotient of only 0.87.