Structural Ironworker
You build the steel skeletons of bridges, high-rises, and stadiums — connecting beams hundreds of feet in the air. It's one of the most physically dangerous jobs in the country, and it pays accordingly.
What Tuesday looks like
You're at the jobsite at 6 AM, harness on, hard hat clipped. Today the crane is setting beams on the 14th floor of a building that didn't exist three months ago. You climb up the column, walk the iron, and wait for the load. When the beam swings in, you and your partner guide it into place by hand, line up the bolt holes, and drive in the spud wrench. Wind picks up around 10 and the beam wants to swing. You stay calm because panicking up here gets people killed. Lunch is on a piece of decking, looking at the city. Afternoon you're bolting and torquing connections, arms burning. A piece of scrap drops two floors away — nobody hurt, but everyone stops, and the foreman chews someone out. You're down by 3:30, every muscle sore, knees shot at 40 if you're not careful, but the building going up is yours.
Career profile
Career shape
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In the landscape
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Salary range
No salary data
10-yr growth
+4%
Reward profile
3 quick questions to see how this career fits the way you work.
What school costs — and when it pays off
Apprenticeship · You get paid while you train. Minimal upfront cost, wages from day one.
No debt, no delay. The chart shows your realistic annual salary over 20 years — entry level through experienced.
School cost fully covered by year 6, with strong earnings well beyond that.
Entry-level salary
$48K
25th percentile — what most people start at
Experienced salary
$85K
75th percentile — after ~10 years in the field
School & training cost
$2K
+ $0K interest over 10 yrs
Time to first paycheck
3 yrs
then salary from day one
Starting out
Year 13
Salary range reflects 25th–75th percentile nationally, growing from entry-level to experienced over 10 working years. School costs are national averages — yours will vary. Monthly figures are pre-tax.
The first years
Apprentice Year 1
You're the lowest person on the crew. You're hauling tools, sorting bolts, learning to tie off, and getting yelled at when you do something stupid — which is often, because everything up here can kill you. Pay is roughly 50-60% of journeyman scale, so somewhere around $18-25/hour depending on the local. You're also in night classes 1-2 times a week for the apprenticeship program, unpaid, learning blueprint reading, rigging, and welding basics.
Apprentice Year 2-3
You're actually doing the work now — connecting beams, bolting up, running a torch, signaling the crane. Your body hurts in new places every week and you've probably had at least one close call that made you reconsider the whole thing. Pay bumps every six months or so as you hit benchmarks. Winter layoffs are real; you might be off work for weeks if the local is slow, and you learn to budget like an adult fast.
Journeyman (Year 4)
You've topped out of the apprenticeship and you're making full scale — usually $35-55/hour depending on the city, plus pension and health benefits through the union. You can walk iron without thinking about it, you know how to read a set of prints, and rookies look to you to show them how things are done. The work is still brutal on your body, and you start noticing the older guys with bad knees, bad backs, and bad hearing.
Decision point
Around year 4-5 you have to figure out what kind of ironworker you want to be. Stay a connector and chase big high-rise and bridge work for the highest pay and highest risk? Specialize — rebar, rigging, welding certifications, ornamental — which can mean steadier indoor work and less wear on your body? Or start eyeing the foreman track, which means more responsibility, more paperwork, and less time actually swinging iron. Each path changes your next 20 years.
Experienced Journeyman / Lead (Year 6-7)
You've got a reputation now — contractors request you by name, or they don't. If you went the foreman route, you're running a small crew, dealing with the general contractor, and writing daily reports. If you stayed on the tools, you're the guy doing the tricky connections nobody else wants. Pay is solid, often $80-120K with overtime, but you're feeling the job in your shoulders and you're starting to think seriously about how long your body can do this.