Report: Gville construction wages up 3% since 2018

Construction workers in Gainesville have realized a three percent increase in their wages since 2018 and they are better off than their counterparts in many places in the country where inflation has more than offset the wage growth.

That’s according to a new report from Construction Coverage, which also notes that this is happening despite “persistent labor shortages and record levels of spending.”

The report says while wage growth is below-average nationally, construction workers in certain parts of the country, such as Georgia, have fared better. Researchers calculated the inflation-adjusted change in mean construction worker earnings from 2018 to 2023, then ranked locations accordingly.

These are the main takeaways, according to a Construction Coverage news release, from the report, highlighting some key stats for the Gainesville metro area:

Nationally, construction and extraction workers earned an average annual wage of $61,500 in 2023, up from $51,220 in 2018. While this marks a 20.1% increase in pay on a nominal basis, when adjusted for inflation, it represents a 1.1% decrease in purchasing power.
In 22 states, inflation-adjusted construction wages showed positive growth over the past five years—meaning the average construction worker in these states still has more purchasing power today than in 2018. Leading this list are Maine (+6.2%), Nevada (+6.0%), Washington (+4.8%), and Oregon (+4.4%).
Conversely, the wage gains experienced by construction workers in 28 states failed to keep pace with inflation, resulting in a net loss of purchasing power. Among the least favorable states for construction wage growth are Wyoming (-7.3%), Alaska (-6.4%), and New York (-6.4%).
Between 2018 and 2023, mean annual earnings for construction workers in the Gainesville metro increased 25.0%, from $39,980 to $49,980.
This represents an inflation-adjusted increase of 3.0%.
The full report includes data on nearly 400 U.S. metropolitan areas and all 50 states.
Original report: Cities With the Fastest-Growing Wages for Construction Workers [2024 Edition] – Construction Coverage

About the Author

Ken Stanford is Online News Editor for GLORY 97.5, a position he has held since August 2022.

Ken was born in Moultrie, Georgia, and says he knew from the time he was 5 or 6 he wanted to be a “radio announcer.” That dream was realized when he was hired by Moultrie radio station WMTM in 1960 at the age of 15 as a weekend disc jockey. A 1963 graduate of Moultrie (now Colquitt County) High School, he has spent his whole career in Georgia working for stations in Atlanta, Marietta, and Gainesville – most recently as News Director for 40 years at WDUN in Gainesville. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Ken retired in 2011 but came out of retirement last year to help GLORY, on a part-time basis, beef-up its online news presence.

He is the recipient of many Associated Press awards and is a former judge of state and national Associated Press broadcast news contests. In 2005, he was presented with the Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s President’s Award for Excellence in Journalism and in 2019 was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

He lives in Gainesville with his wife of 52 years, the former Sandra McKnight of Clio, Alabama, and they have one child, a daughter, Lisa, who lives in Cumming with her family.