How much do underwater welders make?
About these figures: BLS does not publish separate pay for underwater welders. The pay figures on this page are for all commercial divers (SOC 49-9092), the occupation underwater welders belong to. What differs for underwater welders.
Answer
BLS does not publish pay for underwater welders separately. Commercial divers, the occupation underwater welders belong to, earned a median of $72,990 a year ($35.09 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned $54,810 to $101,550.
- Median annual pay
- $72,990
- Mean $88,320
- Median hourly pay
- $35.09
- Mean $42.46
- Typical range (10th–90th)
- $43.3K–$158K
- $43,330 to $157,790
- US jobs
- 3,450
- +4.8% projected, 2025–35
BLS OEWS, May 2025, released April 30, 2026; figures for all commercial divers. Wages include tips, commissions and production bonuses but not overtime premiums, shift differentials, other bonuses or benefits; self-employed workers are not included. Methodology
How to become an underwater welder: steps, years and cost · Best-paying state after cost of living: Washington
Pay range for all commercial divers
Annual wages, May 2025
- 10th percentile$43,330
- 25th percentile$54,810
- Median$72,990
- 75th percentile$101,550
- 90th percentile$157,790
Half of all commercial divers earned more than $72,990 and half earned less. The lowest-paid 10% made under $43,330; the top 10% made over $157,790. The middle 50%, from the 25th to the 75th percentile, ran from $54,810 to $101,550.
These percentiles describe everyone in the occupation at one time. They are not pay steps by years of experience: they mix new and senior workers, different states, employers and hours. Pay generally rises with experience, credentials and specialization, but BLS does not publish pay by experience.
| Percentile | Annual | Hourly | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th | $43,330 | $20.83 | $3,611 |
| 25th | $54,810 | $26.35 | $4,568 |
| Median (50th) | $72,990 | $35.09 | $6,083 |
| 75th | $101,550 | $48.82 | $8,463 |
| 90th | $157,790 | $75.86 | $13,149 |
| Mean (average) | $88,320 | $42.46 | $7,360 |
Underwater Welder salary by state: pay for all commercial divers
Median annual pay; cost of living from BEA regional price parities 2024
Highest-paying states
- 1. Washington $161,800
- 2. New York $157,800
- 3. Rhode Island $126,320
- 4. California $101,540
- 5. Hawaii $95,750
Lowest-paying states
- 19. Texas $46,490
- 18. South Carolina $49,260
- 17. Florida $49,640
- 16. Michigan $54,620
- 15. Connecticut $59,690
Best after cost of living: Washington. Its median of $161,800 is worth about $151,197 at national-average prices.
| Alabama | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Arizona | $85,990 | 7 | $85,412 | 8 | $41.34 | — | — |
| Arkansas | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| California | $101,540 | 4 | $91,709 | 4 | $48.82 | 310 | 0.02 |
| Colorado | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Connecticut | $59,690 | 15 | $57,610 | 15 | $28.70 | 120 | 0.07 |
| Delaware | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| District of Columbia | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Florida | $49,640 | 17 | $48,001 | 18 | $23.86 | 370 | 0.04 |
| Georgia | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Hawaii | $95,750 | 5 | $87,084 | 7 | $46.04 | 70 | 0.11 |
| Idaho | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Illinois | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Indiana | $83,510 | 9 | $89,479 | 5 | $40.15 | — | — |
| Iowa | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Kansas | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Kentucky | $63,550 | 11 | $70,487 | 12 | $30.55 | — | — |
| Louisiana | $62,230 | 14 | $70,550 | 11 | $29.92 | 230 | 0.12 |
| Maine | $74,610 | 10 | $76,878 | 10 | $35.87 | — | — |
| Maryland | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Massachusetts | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Michigan | $54,620 | 16 | $56,768 | 16 | $26.26 | 80 | 0.02 |
| Minnesota | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Mississippi | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Missouri | $63,030 | 12 | $69,403 | 13 | $30.30 | — | — |
| Montana | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Nebraska | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Nevada | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| New Hampshire | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| New Jersey | $86,920 | 6 | $79,886 | 9 | $41.79 | — | — |
| New Mexico | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| New York | $157,800 | 2 | $146,218 | 2 | $75.87 | 170 | 0.02 |
| North Carolina | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| North Dakota | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Ohio | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Oklahoma | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Oregon | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Pennsylvania | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Rhode Island | $126,320 | 3 | $123,504 | 3 | $60.73 | — | — |
| South Carolina | $49,260 | 18 | $52,545 | 17 | $23.68 | 30 | 0.01 |
| South Dakota | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tennessee | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Texas | $46,490 | 19 | $47,900 | 19 | $22.35 | — | — |
| Utah | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Vermont | $85,780 | 8 | $87,568 | 6 | $41.24 | 80 | 0.25 |
| Virginia | $62,340 | 13 | $61,659 | 14 | $29.97 | — | — |
| Washington | $161,800 | 1 | $151,197 | 1 | $77.79 | — | — |
| West Virginia | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Wisconsin | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Wyoming | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
BLS OEWS, May 2025, state estimates. Adjusted pay = median ÷ (state price level ÷ 100), using BEA regional price parities for 2024; it ignores taxes. Figures for states with few workers in the occupation have larger survey errors and can change sharply from one year to the next. “—” means BLS did not publish the figure (32 states). State names link to each state’s highest-paying jobs.
Best-paying metro areas for commercial divers
10 metro areas with published pay
| Metro area | Median | Adjusted | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Providence-Warwick, RI-MA | $126,320 | $124,119 | — |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $101,550 | $90,761 | 60 |
| Urban Honolulu, HI | $95,750 | $86,292 | 50 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $89,130 | $79,182 | — |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | $84,200 | $82,103 | 50 |
| Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | $62,820 | $64,141 | 90 |
| Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | $59,690 | $58,095 | 70 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | $55,440 | $48,566 | 90 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $50,920 | $51,628 | 100 |
| Jacksonville, FL | $49,640 | $49,897 | 40 |
| Metro area | Jobs | Median | Adjusted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | 100 | $50,920 | $51,628 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 100 | — | — |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 90 | $55,440 | $48,566 |
| Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | 90 | $62,820 | $64,141 |
| Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | 70 | $59,690 | $58,095 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | 60 | $101,550 | $90,761 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 50 | $84,200 | $82,103 |
| Urban Honolulu, HI | 50 | $95,750 | $86,292 |
| Jacksonville, FL | 40 | $49,640 | $49,897 |
BLS OEWS, May 2025, metropolitan statistical areas; adjusted with BEA metro price parities (2024).
What moves underwater welder pay: employers and settings
BLS does not publish separate pay for underwater welders. The figures on this page are for commercial divers, the occupation that includes them, along with divers who do inspection, salvage, construction and even aquarium and theme park work. It is a small group of 3,450 jobs, so state and industry figures can swing from year to year.
Industry shows the spread clearly. Divers in other heavy and civil engineering construction, the industry that includes marine work on bridges, docks and pipelines, have a median of $104,980. Other support services, the largest group at 44.6% of jobs, pay $76,350 and support activities for water transportation pay $95,750. Amusement parks pay $39,200 and museums $46,540.
Location matters too: Washington leads at $161,800, followed by New York at $157,800, Rhode Island at $126,320, California at $101,540, and Hawaii at $95,750. Florida at $49,640, South Carolina at $49,260, and Texas at $46,490 are at the low end. Across all commercial divers, pay runs from $43,330, the 10th percentile, to $157,790, the 90th. For any one diver, annual earnings also depend on how many days of work they get in a year.
| Industry | Share of jobs | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Other Support Services | 44.6% | $76,350 |
| Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction | 27.2% | $104,980 |
| Amusement Parks and Arcades | 5.2% | $39,200 |
| Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions | 2.9% | $46,540 |
| Support Activities for Water Transportation | 2% | $95,750 |
| Employer type | Jobs | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Private employers | 3,420 | $72,750 |
BLS OEWS, May 2025, national industry-specific and ownership estimates (4-digit NAICS).
Commercial divers pay over time
Median annual pay, 2015–2025
- 2015
- 2016
- 2017
- 2018
- 2019
- 2020
- 2021
- 2022
- 2023
- 2024
- 2025
The median rose from $50,470 in 2015 to $72,990 in 2025, up 45% in nominal dollars. After inflation, the 2015 median is worth $68,225 in May 2025 dollars, so real pay grew 7% over the period.
BLS OEWS, May 2025 and earlier May releases; inflation from the CPI-U, US city average, May of each year.
What differs for underwater welders
Underwater welders are commercial divers who also have welding skills and qualifications. The diving qualification comes first: you need formal commercial diver training, typically documented with an ADCI certification card, before an employer will put you in the water. Recreational scuba cards do not count.
The welding side is measured against AWS D3.6M, the underwater welding code. It defines three weld classes: Class A, comparable to welds made above water; Class B, for less critical work; and Class O, which follows another specified code. Each class has its own qualification and inspection requirements, so the welding a diver is cleared to do depends on the class the job calls for.
Most people enter by finishing commercial diving school, working as a tender who supports divers from the surface and does shallow dives, and moving up to air diver as they log field days and working dives. Divers who already weld well, or who trained as welders first, are more likely to be chosen for welding jobs. Dry hyperbaric welding is a smaller, more specialized niche, often offshore.
What underwater welders do
Underwater welders are commercial divers who cut and weld steel below the surface. Most of the job is diving work in general: inspecting and repairing ship hulls, bridge piers, docks, dams, water intakes, offshore platforms and pipelines, rigging loads, cleaning structures and recording video for engineers. Welding is one skill in that kit, and many commercial divers spend more time inspecting, cutting and rigging than welding.
There are two kinds of underwater welding. Wet welding is done directly in the water with special electrodes. Dry, or hyperbaric, welding is done inside a sealed chamber or habitat built around the joint, with the water pushed out. The American Welding Society's underwater welding code, AWS D3.6M, covers both and sets the weld quality classes.
Divers work in crews with tenders, a supervisor and topside support, often from barges or vessels, in cold, dark or murky water. Offshore jobs can mean weeks away from home, and the risks include decompression sickness, electric shock, hypothermia and entrapment.
A typical day
- Check helmets, umbilicals, hoses and welding leads before every dive
- Plan the dive with the supervisor, including depth, bottom time and decompression
- Clean marine growth off steel so the joint can be inspected or welded
- Cut damaged steel with underwater cutting torches and fit replacement plates
- Make wet welds or work inside a dry habitat on critical repairs
- Inspect and film structures and report findings to engineers on the surface
- Work as a tender for other divers: tending hoses, dressing them in and watching for trouble
Also called: underwater welding, commercial diver.
How to become an underwater welder
Full guideTo become an underwater welder, you finish high school, complete an accredited commercial diving program of at least 625 hours that includes underwater cutting and welding, get an ADCI entry-level tender/diver card, and then build experience as a tender before welding on the job. Welding training before dive school helps.
- Typical time
- 1-2 years or more to regular diving and welding work
- Fastest: About 6 months to first job as a tender
- Minimum education
- High school diploma or equivalent plus a commercial diving program of at least 625 hours meeting the ANSI/ACDE-01-2015 standard
- License
- No state license; commercial diving is regulated by OSHA, and employers rely on accredited training, ADCI cards and AWS D3.6M welder qualifications
- Typical training cost
- $75–$4.5K
- See the guide for what it includes
Read the step-by-step guide to becoming an underwater welder: each step with its time and cost, education options, exams, licensing and advancement.
Is it worth it? Training cost against pay
Compare careers- Training time
- 1-2 years or more to regular diving and welding work
- Typical path in our guide
- Training cost
- $75–$4.5K
- Tuition and exam fees, before aid
- Median pay
- $72,990
- All commercial divers; $22,010 above the all-jobs median ($50,980)
- Cost vs. one year's pay
- 0–6%
- Training cost as a share of a year at the median
Once qualified, the pay difference over the typical US job at the median ($22,010 a year before tax) would repay the training cost in less than a year after training ends (1-2 years or more to regular diving and welding work in our guide). This is a rough guide: it ignores taxes, financial aid, interest, earnings given up while training and how pay changes over a career. How we calculate ROI.
Job outlook for commercial divers
BLS Employment Projections 2025–35
- Projected growth
- +4.8%
- All occupations +3.5%
- Jobs in 2025
- 4,000
- 4,200 projected for 2035
- Openings each year
- 400
- New jobs plus replacements
- Self-employed
- 14.8%
- Not in the pay figures above
BLS projects commercial diver jobs to grow 4.8% from 2025 to 2035, from 4,000 to 4,200. That is a little faster than the 3.5% average, but the occupation is tiny, with about 400 openings a year nationwide, mostly from divers who retire or leave the work. Much of the work comes from marine construction and from inspecting and repairing bridges, ports, dams and offshore structures, so hiring can rise and fall with those project budgets. About 14.8% of commercial divers are self-employed.
Related careers and their pay
- Plumber$63,800
- Welder$53,750
- Construction Worker$47,120
- Riggers$62,640
- Ship Engineers$109,530
Related occupations from O*NET 31.0; median annual pay from BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Underwater Welder salary FAQ
How much do underwater welders make an hour?
BLS does not publish separate pay for underwater welders. For all commercial divers, the occupation they belong to, the median hourly wage was $35.09 in May 2025. The lowest-paid 10% earned less than $20.83 an hour and the highest-paid 10% more than $75.86. Hourly figures are BLS estimates for all workers in the occupation, full-time and part-time.
Which state pays underwater welders the most?
BLS does not publish separate pay for underwater welders. For all commercial divers, the occupation they belong to, Washington has the highest median pay, $161,800 a year, followed by New York ($157,800) and Rhode Island ($126,320). After adjusting for each state's price level, Washington comes out ahead at about $151,197 in national-average dollars.
Do underwater welders make six figures?
BLS does not publish separate pay for underwater welders. For all commercial divers, the occupation they belong to, based on the BLS percentiles, between 25% and 50% of commercial divers earn more than $100,000 a year. The median is $72,990, and the top 10% earn more than $157,790. Pay generally rises with experience, specialization and location.
Do underwater welders make more than regular welders?
BLS does not publish pay for underwater welders, so there is no official figure to compare. Commercial divers, the occupation that includes them, have a median of $72,990, but that covers all diving work, from aquarium tank cleaning to offshore construction. Divers in other heavy and civil engineering construction, which includes marine construction, have a median of $104,980. Earnings for any one diver depend on days worked, depth, travel and the type of jobs.
Is underwater welding dangerous?
Yes. The hazards include decompression sickness, electric shock from welding underwater, hypothermia, getting trapped or pinned, and the pressure changes that come with depth. Dive teams manage them with planned ascent schedules, insulated equipment, surface-supplied air, standby divers and supervisors. Federal OSHA rules govern commercial diving operations, and ADCI's industry standards call for a fitness-to-dive medical exam every year.
Which states have the most commercial diving jobs?
Florida has the most commercial divers in our data, with 370 jobs, followed by California with 310, Louisiana with 230, New York with 170 and Connecticut with 120. Coastal states with ports, bridges and naval facilities generate steady inspection and repair work. The numbers are small, so a single large project can shift them.
Sources
Data updated October 28, 2026 · Text checked against its sources October 28, 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates, released April 30, 2026, SOC 49-9092
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–2035, released September 2026
- O*NET 31.0 Database (49-9092.00), U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0; tasks rewritten by Careers and Salaries
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities by state and metro area, 2024
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), US city average, May values
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard field-of-study and institution data, most recent cohorts, released 2026-10-15
- D3.6M:2017 Underwater Welding Code, American Welding Society · checked October 28, 2026
- International Consensus Standards for Commercial Diving and Underwater Operations, 6.3, Association of Diving Contractors International · checked October 28, 2026
- Classification Requirements, Association of Diving Contractors International · checked October 28, 2026
- Marine Diving Technologies, Santa Barbara City College · checked October 28, 2026
- 29 CFR 1910.410, Qualifications of dive team, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Code of Federal Regulations via GovInfo) · checked October 28, 2026
- Underwater Welding Safety (Welding Digest, June 2026), American Welding Society · checked October 28, 2026
- 46 CFR 197.202, Applicability (Commercial Diving Operations), U.S. Coast Guard (Code of Federal Regulations via GovInfo) · checked October 28, 2026
- Welding Technology Certificate, Howard Community College · checked October 28, 2026
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