Plumber Salary in Massachusetts 2026,
$93,880 Median | BLS Data by City

Massachusetts plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters earn a median $93,880 a year, $45.14 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $61,860 and $108,430 and a full range of $52,010 to $135,080. That is 47.1% above the $63,800 national median, among the highest state figures in the country.

Through the Board of State Examiners of Plumbers and Gas Fitters at the Division of Occupational Licensure. Massachusetts licenses at apprentice, journeyman and master level, requiring documented apprenticeship hours and approved classroom instruction before examination, and it licenses gas fitting separately. Massachusetts also maintains its own state plumbing and gas code rather than adopting a model code unchanged, so the examination is genuinely state-specific.

Boston-Cambridge-Newton at $96,760, then Springfield at $92,080, Worcester at $82,260, Pittsfield at $81,970 and Amherst Town-Northampton at $78,570. Springfield's strong second place reflects institutional and industrial pipefitting work in the Connecticut River valley rather than a residential service market.

Three reinforcing factors. The licensing board is strict, with documented hours and classroom instruction required at every tier, so the supply of licensed plumbers is genuinely constrained. Massachusetts maintains its own plumbing and gas code, which makes the credential state-specific and less portable. And the building trades are heavily organised, with negotiated scale on commercial work and prevailing wage on public projects in a state with substantial institutional construction.

A flat 5% state income tax on wages, with the additional 4% surtax only above one million dollars and no city or town income tax anywhere in Massachusetts. Because the rate is flat, the scheduled overtime common on commercial projects is taxed at the same rate as base pay.

It makes the licence less portable and the licensed plumber more valuable. Most states adopt a model plumbing code with local amendments; Massachusetts writes and maintains its own, with requirements that differ meaningfully from the model codes used elsewhere. A plumber licensed in another state cannot simply transfer in, and inspection and permitting run to Massachusetts-specific standards. That friction restricts supply, and restricted supply in a state with this much construction activity is a large part of why the median sits 47.1% above the national figure.

It is a wage figure, not a compensation figure, and on the union side of this trade the gap is substantial — pension, annuity and health and welfare contributions on organised Massachusetts work add materially to a package the survey never sees. In the other direction, self-employed master plumbers running their own shops are largely outside the payroll survey. And the upper half of the band reflects heavy scheduled overtime on commercial projects as well as high rates.

The licence tier and the sector. Progressing from journeyman to master licence changes what you are legally permitted to do and opens contracting, and adding gas fitting licensure broadens the work further. After that, moving from residential service into union commercial, institutional and industrial pipefitting is what carries a plumber from the $61,860 twenty-fifth percentile toward the $108,430 seventy-fifth — hospital, laboratory and university mechanical work in the Boston and Worcester corridors is the highest-value version of that. Medical gas certification, welding certifications and foreman responsibility each add further premiums.