Pick a trade and state to see real hourly rates.
May 2025 BLS California employee wages for Construction Laborers, SOC 47-2061. Skilled trades and contractor revenue differ.
Last updated October 21, 2026. Rates are market estimates, not guarantees.
Pick a trade and state to see real hourly rates.
May 2025 BLS California employee wages for Construction Laborers, SOC 47-2061. Skilled trades and contractor revenue differ.
Last updated October 21, 2026. Rates are market estimates, not guarantees.
Hiring guide · California
Define laboring duties and assess practical readiness before recruiting supervised construction workers.
For California employers recruiting construction laborers. Define site preparation, materials handling, equipment support, supervision, and reporting arrangements before advertising. Distinguish employees from registered apprentices and independent contracting businesses. Assess practical readiness and learning potential, plan task-specific instruction, and compare compensation with the actual duties and development opportunities your project offers.
Candidate availability moves week to week. What does not move is the screening: the certifications below are what decide whether someone can be badged onto your site at all.
The levels are separated by what the state allows a person to do unsupervised, not by how good they are. Hiring the wrong level is the most common and most expensive mistake on a trade requisition.
Productive under supervision and cheap, but they cannot be left on a task the state licenses, and they need someone qualified with them.
Works unsupervised and can carry a helper. This is the level almost every requisition is actually describing.
Runs crews across sites, owns compliance outcomes, and where the trade allows, pulls permits and qualifies the work.
Budget $28.98 an hour for a qualified construction laborer in California, from $19.69 at entry level to $45.01 at the top. Add a quarter to a third on top for payroll taxes, insurance and equipment, and price overtime at time and a half.
See the full construction laborer salary guide →What you are required to hold on file before a construction laborer starts in California. Tick items off as you confirm them — nothing is stored, this list is yours to work through.
Reach highway, MC3 and airport-preparation graduates through the listed programs. Confirm recruitment connections and assess skills for the laboring tasks.
Certificates get a candidate past the first filter. These are the questions that separate the ones who can do the work from the ones who have the paperwork, and they change by level.
Certifications listed with no issuing body or date
A licence described as 'in progress'
No supervisor anyone can call
Three or four employers inside a year
Long gaps with no explanation offered
Cards that lapsed and were never renewed
A realistic schedule for a certified construction laborer, from writing the requisition to a badged start. The screening steps are where time is actually lost.
Traffic exposure, coordinated building crews and changing specialty sites shape staffing needs. These national employee wages exclude benefits and other hiring costs.
Match road-support duties to traffic awareness and materials handling. Budget instruction, onboarding and benefits beyond national wages.
Assess materials handling and commercial crew support. Define supervision and include payroll, benefits and onboarding in the budget.
Hire for the specialist support package. Clarify equipment responsibilities and budget project transfers, instruction and benefits separately.
Post a role and reach OSHA-certified candidates in your area.
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