Boilermakers

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025

$76,410

Half earn more, half earn less

Middle half earn

$64,760 – $95,430

25th to 75th percentile

People employed, May 2025

10,190

Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)

Projected change, 2025–35

-1.8%

Shrinking (below 0%)

Openings a year (projected)

700

New jobs plus replacing people who leave

Typical education to enter

High school diploma or equivalent

BLS

• All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
• Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
• Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.

What the work involves

Construct, assemble, maintain, and repair stationary steam boilers and boiler house auxiliaries. Align structures or plate sections to assemble boiler frame tanks or vats, following blueprints. Work involves use of hand and power tools, plumb bobs, levels, wedges, dogs, or turnbuckles. Assist in testing assembled vessels. Direct cleaning of boilers and boiler furnaces. Inspect and repair boiler fittings, such as safety valves, regulators, automatic-control mechanisms, water columns, and auxiliary machines.

Main tasks

• Conduct pressure tests on vessels, such as boilers.
• Study blueprints to determine locations, relationships, or dimensions of parts.
• Examine boilers, pressure vessels, tanks, or vats to locate defects, such as leaks, weak spots, or defective sections, so that they can be repaired.
• Inspect assembled vessels or individual components, such as tubes, fittings, valves, controls, or auxiliary mechanisms, to locate any defects.
• Lay out plate, sheet steel, or other heavy metal and locate and mark bending and cutting lines, using protractors, compasses, and drawing instruments or templates.
• Bell, bead with power hammers, or weld pressure vessel tube ends to ensure leakproof joints.
• Locate and mark reference points for columns or plates on boiler foundations, following blueprints and using straightedges, squares, transits, or measuring instruments.
• Shape or fabricate parts, such as stacks, uptakes, or chutes, to adapt pressure vessels, heat exchangers, or piping to premises, using heavy-metalworking machines such as brakes, rolls, or drill presses.

Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)

High school diploma or equivalent

Training once hired: apprenticeship

O*NET Job Zone 1–2

Little to some preparation

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 1 programme to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.

Related careers

Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.

• Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters

  $63,800 median · +6.8% projected

• Millwrights

  $65,700 median · +0.9% projected

• Engine and Other Machine Assemblers

  $53,710 median · -17% projected

• Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers

  $65,380 median · -5.6% projected

• Structural Iron and Steel Workers

  $62,780 median · +3.1% projected

• Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters

  $51,330 median · -6.2% projected