What wages do construction workers command in world’s top 10 economies?

But what is the average pay that workers receive, and how does it vary across the world’s 10 largest economies?

Those are questions that today’s Construction Briefing sets out to answer using data from the US-based Economic Research Institute, which compiles salary survey data from different industries across the world.

Comparing wages across countries is not a simple task. Differences in currency strength, labour market dynamics, and economic conditions all make it difficult to make direct comparisons.

The Economic Research Institute provides its average salary data in local currency and we have converted all construction wage figures into US dollars using current exchange rates.

Source: Economic Research Institute/KHL Group

The approach provides a snapshot of absolute wage levels but it’s important to remember that cost of living varies significantly from country to country, adding another layer of complexity to the analysis.

It is perhaps no surprise, considering the size of its economy and the strong growth in its construction industry in recent years to learn that the highest mean annual construction pay in the world is in the USA.

It is followed closely by European nations like Germany and the UK, which reflects both the size of their economies and established labour protections that allow workers to command relatively high levels of pay.

However, countries like China and Brazil, while key players in global GDP rankings, show significantly lower average wages.

It’s a similar story in our second table, which focuses on hourly wages. While the U.S. leads in absolute terms with an average hourly rate of $25.48, India sits at the bottom of that table, with a mean hourly rate of just US$1.92.

It’s also important to note that the construction industry encompasses a vast selection of different roles, all of which command different rates of pay. That makes it difficult to produce a mean average figure that accurately reflects the pay of construction workers because of the high level of variation in what they receive, dependent on what they do, their experience, and local market conditions.

To address that, the figures also show a range of average pay rates, running from the 10th percentile to the 90th percentile in each country (see salary ranges chart above).

In most countries, salaries at the top end of the range are several times higher than they are at the bottom, which underscores the diverse roles within the industry.