Florida is 2nd worst-paying state for women in construction
The intense real estate market of the last several years has highlighted the shortage of housing stock in the United States—and, amidst this heightened demand, construction companies have struggled to find sufficient labor. In response to the shortage, the industry is increasingly drawing on a historically underrepresented segment of the population: women.
While women still have low representation within construction trade occupations—such as plumbers, carpenters, masons, and electricians—they have disproportionately high representation in some of the industry’s best-paying jobs.
Nationally, full-time female workers earn $52,478 annually in the sector. However, pay varies widely by state, and regional differences in cost of living affect how far a salary will go in a given location. Researchers ranked states according to the median annual wage for full-time women working in the construction industry, adjusted for cost-of-living differences.
These are the main takeaways from the report, highlighting some key stats for Florida:
• In the 1960s, only about 6% of construction industry workers were women. This figure began to rise sharply between 1970 and the early 1990s, remaining relatively steady through much of the mid-2000s, and consistently increasing since around 2016. Today, 14.3% of all workers and 10.2% of full-time workers in the sector are women.
• Lawyers in the construction sector are the industry’s top-paid workers, with median annual wages of $200,000 for men and $180,000 for women. Women account for more than 31% of construction industry attorneys, approximately three times higher than their overall representation in the sector.
• This trend is seen across many of the best-paying occupations for women in the construction sector, including analysts, scientists, CEOs, real estate brokers, architects, civil engineers, and sales managers.
• Due to women’s relatively high concentrations in these jobs, the median wage for full-time women working in construction exceeds that for all full-time working women in 39 states.
• In Florida, women working in the construction industry full-time earn an actual median wage of $47,521 annually.
• After adjusting for the state’s cost of living, that figure is $46,524—making Florida the 2nd worst-paying state for women in the construction sector.
Here is a link to the complete results of the analysis, with data on all 50 states. And here is a snapshot of the data table included in the full report, looking at the 15 states with the highest median annual wage for women in the construction industry.
