Pipefitting General Foreman: Leads large crews installing piping in refineries, power plants, and factories. Typical pay $115k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Master Plumber: The top plumbing license: designs systems, pulls permits, and supervises crews. Typical pay $95k.
Journeyman Plumber: Installs and repairs water, drain, and gas pipes in homes and buildings. Typical pay $63k.
Pipefitter / Steamfitter: Installs high-pressure pipes that carry steam, chemicals, and fuel in plants and big buildings. Typical pay $67k.
Fire Sprinkler Fitter: Installs the fire sprinkler systems that save lives in buildings. Typical pay $68k.
Medical Gas Pipe Installer: Installs the oxygen, vacuum, and medical gas lines patients depend on in hospitals. Typical pay $78k.
Gas Fitter: Installs and repairs natural gas lines for furnaces, stoves, and water heaters. Typical pay $62k.
Service & Repair Plumber: Drives to homes and businesses to fix leaks, clogs, water heaters, and broken pipes. Typical pay $65k.
Backflow Prevention Tester: Tests special valves that stop dirty water from flowing back into the drinking water supply. Typical pay $56k.
Steam Systems Technician: Tests and repairs the thousands of steam traps in hospitals, factories and campuses that waste energy when they fail. Typical pay $62k.
Starter: fastest way in
Plumbing Apprentice: Learns plumbing on the job under a licensed plumber while taking classes. Typical pay $44k.
Plumber's Helper: Assists plumbers by hauling pipe, cutting holes, and cleaning up job sites. Typical pay $39k.
Drain & Sewer Camera Technician: Clears clogged drains and sends cameras into sewer lines to find breaks and roots. Typical pay $47k.
Water Treatment System Installer: Installs and services water softeners, filters and reverse-osmosis systems in homes and businesses. Typical pay $46k.
Well Pump Installer: Installs and repairs the pumps that pull water up from private wells for homes and farms. Typical pay $50k.
Trenchless Pipe Lining Technician: Repairs broken sewer and water pipes from the inside with resin liners, without digging up yards or streets. Typical pay $52k.
Grease Trap Service Technician: Pumps out and cleans the grease traps under restaurant kitchens so fats and oils do not clog city sewers. Typical pay $45k.
Lead Service Line Replacement Worker: Digs up and replaces the old lead pipes that carry drinking water from the street into homes, as required by new federal rules. Typical pay $52k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.