Who does bathroom work in Central Ohio: the trades by the numbers
A bathroom job draws on several trades: a plumber, often an electrician, a carpenter, drywall, tile and paint. This page counts them in the Columbus metro from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau, compares their pay as ratios rather than dollars, shows how many businesses have no employees, where an Ohio trade firm's revenue goes, how many state contractor licenses are active, and how fast the trades are projected to grow.
Last updated September 2026 · Figures are the Bureau of Labor Statistics', the Census Bureau's and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services', each read September 24, 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base
What these figures count
Four federal and state sources describe the people and firms that do bathroom work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' occupational survey, the May 2025 edition, counts jobs and wages by trade for the ten-county Columbus metro area, which takes in all seven Central Ohio counties; it leaves out the self-employed and the owners of unincorporated businesses. The Bureau's county employment census counts businesses with employees and their workers each year. The Census Bureau counts businesses with no employees at all, and its 2022 Economic Census shows how Ohio construction firms' revenue divides. Ohio's labor market office counts state contractor licenses. None of them measures any one job, company or bid, and this page gives no wage or price in dollars; it compares wages as ratios instead.
The trades on a bathroom job
The table sets the trades side by side for the Columbus metro in May 2025. The number in parentheses after each job count is the Bureau's relative standard error, its measure of how far the estimate could be off; the tile setter count of 130 carries 30.2 percent and the plumbers' helper count 45.4, so both are rough. A pay ratio of 1.23 means the trade's median wage is 1.23 times the median wage for all jobs in the metro. The spread is the wage at the 90th percentile divided by the wage at the 10th. The self-employed share and the typical training are the Bureau's national figures.
| Trade | Columbus metro jobs (relative standard error, percent) | Median wage against all jobs in the metro | Columbus median as a share of the national median | Spread, 90th against 10th percentile | Self-employed nationally, 2025 | Typical training |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters | 3,060 (6.3) | 1.23 | 99 percent | 2.52 | 8.0 percent | Apprenticeship |
| Electricians | 7,210 (2.2) | 1.26 | 102 percent | 2.05 | 7.1 percent | Apprenticeship |
| Carpenters | 3,620 (8.5) | 1.29 | 110 percent | 1.75 | 25.1 percent | Apprenticeship |
| Drywall and ceiling tile installers | 570 (8.3) | 1.27 | 111 percent | 1.55 | 19.4 percent | Moderate-term on-the-job training |
| Tile and stone setters | 130 (30.2) | 0.92 | 84 percent | 1.67 | 21.1 percent | Long-term on-the-job training |
| Painters, construction and maintenance | 980 (9.3) | 1.01 | 105 percent | 2.01 | 31.3 percent | Moderate-term on-the-job training |
| Construction laborers | 5,590 (5.2) | 1.18 | 128 percent | 2.11 | 26.9 percent | Short-term on-the-job training |
| Helpers of pipelayers, plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters | 200 (45.4) | 0.80 | 97 percent | 1.66 | 1.7 percent | Short-term on-the-job training |
| First-line supervisors of construction trades | 5,420 (4.0) | 1.60 | 103 percent | 1.86 | 11.2 percent | None; five years or more of related work experience |
| All occupations | 1,105,580 | 1.00 | 101 percent | 3.91 | 5.8 percent |
A Columbus plumber's median wage is about 1.2 times the metro's median for all jobs and within one percent of the national median for the trade. Electricians are the most common of these trades here: the metro's share of jobs in the trade is 34 percent above the national share. Tile setters are the reverse, about half the national share, and their median wage is below the metro's all-jobs median. That count leaves out the self-employed, who are about a fifth of tile setters nationally.
Most of the businesses have no employees
The Census Bureau counts two kinds of business separately: those with a payroll, and nonemployer businesses, which have no paid employees and file a tax return for the work. In the Columbus metro in 2023, 89 percent of the businesses doing finishing work, drywall, painting, flooring, tile and trim carpentry, had no employees, and most of the ones with employees had fewer than five.
| Kind of contractor | Businesses with no employees | Establishments with employees | Share with no employees | Establishments with fewer than 5 employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building finishing contractors: drywall, painting, flooring, tile, finish carpentry | 4,841 | 590 | 89 percent | 412 of 590 |
| Residential building construction, including remodelers and new-home builders | 4,528 | 848 | 84 percent | 617 of 848 |
| Building equipment contractors: electrical, plumbing and heating and cooling | 1,660 | 868 | 66 percent | 445 of 868 |
Where a trade firm's revenue goes
The Census Bureau's 2022 Economic Census shows how Ohio construction firms with employees divided the value of their work. At plumbing and heating firms, payroll and benefits came to about 37 percent and materials about 32. At tile firms they were about 40 and 35. Remodelers spent about a fifth on their own payroll and another fifth on work subcontracted to other firms, whose own bills are mostly labor and materials in turn. These are shares of whole industries across the state, not of any one project; the page on how to compare bathroom remodel bids explains why an installed price and a materials price differ.
| Cost | Residential remodelers | Plumbing and heating and cooling | Tile and terrazzo | Drywall and insulation | Painting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll, all employees | 19.7 | 28.1 | 31.1 | 25.8 | 31.4 |
| of which construction workers' wages | 11.9 | 19.1 | 21.9 | 20.7 | 24.2 |
| Fringe benefits, on top of payroll | 3.7 | 9.2 | 8.7 | 10.7 | 9.3 |
| Materials, components and supplies | 37.4 | 31.5 | 34.8 | 34.2 | 18.0 |
| Work subcontracted to other firms | 20.3 | 8.8 | 3.9 | 7.4 | 5.7 |
Remodelers in the seven counties since 2019
The Bureau's county census of employers shows residential remodelers with employees growing in number and in workers in most of the seven counties from 2019 to 2025. In Franklin County they went from 321 establishments to 388 and from 1,606 employees to 2,121, and their average weekly wage rose 36 percent against 31 percent for all jobs in the county. Small counties swing on a handful of firms.
| Area | Establishments | Employees | Change in average weekly wage | Change in average weekly wage, all jobs in the area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin | 321 to 388 | 1,606 to 2,121 | +36 percent | +31 percent |
| Delaware | 54 to 94 | 186 to 362 | +22 percent | +32 percent |
| Licking | 41 to 60 | 97 to 157 | +38 percent | +42 percent |
| Fairfield | 40 to 53 | 189 to 192 | -1 percent | +40 percent |
| Union | 9 to 14 | 40 to 65 | +82 percent | +25 percent |
| Madison | 17 to 23 | 54 to 75 | +38 percent | +30 percent |
| Pickaway | 8 to 11 | 31 to 23 | +1 percent | +27 percent |
| Ohio | 2,836 to 3,598 | 11,764 to 15,077 | +43 percent | +31 percent |
State contractor licenses
Ohio issues contractor licenses for plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning, hydronics and refrigeration work, each to an individual; what the plumbing license covers, and the line it does not cross into houses, is on the page on Ohio's plumbing code and the state license. Ohio's labor market office reports the number of active licenses each state fiscal year. Active plumbing contractor licenses fell from 4,570 in fiscal 2014 to 2,970 in fiscal 2024, but most of that drop came in a single year, from 4,212 in fiscal 2020 to 3,210 in fiscal 2021, when all five trades fell at once, by between 24 and 31 percent, while new licenses rose. No source read for this page explains that year, so the long decline should not be read as people leaving the trades.
| Trade | Active, 2014 | Active, 2020 | Active, 2021 | Active, 2024 | Newly issued, 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing | 4,570 | 4,212 | 3,210 | 2,970 | 108 |
| Electrical | 6,229 | 5,906 | 4,161 | 4,227 | 178 |
| Heating, ventilating and air conditioning | 4,366 | 4,088 | 2,958 | 2,992 | 103 |
| Hydronics | 1,883 | 1,629 | 1,127 | 1,058 | 9 |
| Refrigeration | 1,442 | 1,251 | 894 | 833 | 11 |
Is the work growing?
Three projections cover these trades, from three agencies, for three different periods, so none contradicts another and none should be read without its years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects plumber jobs nationally to grow 6.8 percent from 2025 to 2035, with about 42,000 openings a year. Ohio's own 2022 to 2032 projection for plumbers is 2.1 percent, and its older Columbus metro projection for 2020 to 2030 is 5.1 percent.
| Trade | United States, 2025 to 2035 | Ohio, 2022 to 2032 | Columbus metro, 2020 to 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters | 6.8 percent, 2025 to 2035 | 2.1 percent, 2022 to 2032 | 5.1 percent, 2020 to 2030 |
| Electricians | 9.2 percent | 5.6 percent | 9.7 percent |
| Carpenters | 3.9 percent | 2.5 percent | 3.3 percent |
| Tile and stone setters | 9.8 percent | 10.3 percent | 11.1 percent |
| All occupations | 3.5 percent | 1.0 percent | 9.4 percent |
The short version. The Columbus metro had about 3,060 plumber jobs in May 2025, not counting the self-employed; the median plumber's wage was about 1.2 times the metro's median for all jobs and within one percent of the national median for the trade. Tile setters are few, about 130 jobs with a wide margin, and a fifth of the trade nationally works for itself. In 2023, 89 percent of the metro's finishing-trade businesses had no employees. At Ohio plumbing and tile firms in 2022, payroll and benefits took about 37 to 40 percent of the value of the work, and materials about a third.
Sources
Every figure, date and quotation on this page comes from one of these documents, read on the date given. Where two of them disagree, the page says so.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Columbus metro, Ohio and the United States, released May 15, 2026, with its technical note; read September 24, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, Table 1.2, occupational projections 2025 to 2035, released August 27, 2026; read September 24, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, annual averages 2019 and 2025, seven counties and Ohio, private ownership for remodelers and all ownerships for the all-jobs comparison, through its open data files; read September 24, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics and County Business Patterns, 2023, Columbus metro and seven counties, through data.census.gov; read September 24, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Construction: Summary Statistics, table EC2223BASIC, Ohio and the United States; read September 24, 2026.
- Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Bureau of Labor Market Information, active license counts by occupation and fiscal year and Newly Issued Licenses, fiscal 2014 to 2024; Ohio occupational projections, 2022 to 2032; and Columbus metro projections, 2020 to 2030; read September 24, 2026.
Common questions
How many plumbers work in the Columbus area?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted about 3,060 plumber, pipefitter and steamfitter jobs in the ten-county Columbus metro in May 2025, and about 16,390 in Ohio. Those counts leave out the self-employed, who are about 8 percent of the trade nationally.
How does a Columbus plumber's pay compare with other jobs?
In the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey for May 2025, the Columbus metro's median plumber wage was about 1.2 times the median wage for all jobs in the metro, and within one percent of the national median for plumbers. The wage at the 90th percentile was about two and a half times the wage at the 10th.
Why is labor such a large part of what a trade firm charges?
In the 2022 Economic Census, Ohio plumbing and heating firms spent about 37 percent of the value of their work on payroll and benefits and about 32 percent on materials, and tile firms about 40 and 35 percent. Remodelers paid about a fifth to their own employees and another fifth to other firms they subcontracted, whose bills are mostly labor and materials in turn.
Do most tradespeople in Central Ohio work for a company or for themselves?
For finishing work, drywall, painting, flooring, tile and trim carpentry, most businesses are one-person operations, but about as many people work for a company. In 2023 the Columbus metro had about 4,840 such businesses with no employees and about 590 with a payroll, by the Census Bureau; those 590 employed about 4,910 people, and 412 of them had fewer than five employees.
How many tile setters are there in Central Ohio?
Few, and they are hard to count. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated about 130 tile and stone setter jobs in the Columbus metro in May 2025, with a relative standard error of 30 percent, and that excludes the self-employed, who are about a fifth of the trade nationally. Franklin County had 17 tile contractors with employees in 2025.
How many plumbing contractors hold an Ohio license?
Ohio's labor market office reports 2,970 active state plumbing contractor licenses in fiscal 2024 and 108 newly issued. Active licenses in all five state contractor trades fell by 24 to 31 percent between fiscal 2020 and 2021 while new licenses rose, and no source read explains that year.
Is the plumbing trade growing?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects plumber, pipefitter and steamfitter jobs nationally to grow 6.8 percent from 2025 to 2035, against 3.5 percent for all jobs, with about 42,000 openings a year. Ohio's own projection for 2022 to 2032 is slower, 2.1 percent.
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