Construction workers are earning more than the typical U.S. worker, but how far those paychecks go varies dramatically depending on where they live and work.
A new analysis from Construction Coverage compares construction worker wages with regional cost-of-living differences to identify the U.S. cities and states where construction workers have the greatest purchasing power. Researchers analyzed the latest wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics alongside regional price data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, ranking more than 350 metropolitan areas and all 50 states by cost-of-living-adjusted pay.
In the Charleston metro specifically, construction workers earn a median $51,290 per year. But factoring in its +1.0% cost of living, Charleston metro construction workers earn the equivalent of $50,801 annually. For context, the median annual wage for all workers in the Charleston metro is $49,150…